IC-NRLF 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIFT    OF 


Class 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 


Governor  Buckingham 


THE 

COUNTY  REGIMENT 

A  SKETCH 

OF  THE  SECOND  REGIMENT  OF 

CONNECTICUT  VOLUNTEER  HEAVY  ARTILLERY, 

ORIGINALLY  THE  NINETEENTH  VOLUNTEER 

INFANTRY,  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

BY 

DUDLEY  LANDON  VAILL 


LITCHFIELD  COUNTY 

UNIVERSITY  CLUB 

MCMVIII 


Copyright,  1908,  by 
DUDLEY  L.  VAILL 


PAR  AVANCE 

This  volume  is  one  of  a  series  published  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Litchfield  County  University 
Club,  and  in  accordance  with  a  proposition 
made  to  the  club  by  one  of  its  members, 
Mr.  Carl  Stoeckel,  of  Norfolk,  Connecticut. 

HOWARD  WILLISTON  CARTER, 

Secretary. 


169248 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Governor  Buckingham Frontispiece 

Rev.  Hiram  Eddy facing  page  J 

Presentation  of  Colors,  September  loth,  1862  "  10 

The  first  encampment  in  Virginia        ...  "  14 

Fort  Ellsworth,  near  Alexandria,  May,  1863  "  19 

In  the  Defences.     Guard  mount   .     .     .     .  "  23 

General  Sedgwick "  26 

The  first  battle "  35 

Colonel  Wessells "  47 

Colonel  Kellogg "  61 

Colonel  Mackenzie "  76 

Colonel  Hubbard "  84 

Monument  at  Arlington "  98 


vn 


•^N 

•    THE     ' 

VERSiTY   1 

OF  J 

N^X 


PREFATORY 


FOR  those  who  dwell  within  its  borders,  or 
whose  ancestral  roots  are  bedded  among  its 
hills,  the  claims  of  Litchfield  County  to  distinc 
tion  are  many  and  of  many  kinds.  In  these 
latter  days  it  has  become  notable  as  the  home  of 
certain  organizations  of  unique  character  and 
high  purpose,  which  flourish  under  circum 
stances  highly  exceptional,  and  certainly  no  less 
highly  appreciated. 

It  is  as  part  of  the  work  of  one  of  these  that 
there  is  commemorated  in  this  volume  an  or 
ganization  of  an  earlier  day,  one  distinctively 
of  the  county,  in  no  way  unique  in  its  time,  but 

ix 


PREFATORY 

of  the  highest  purpose — the  regiment  gathered 
here  for  the  national  defence  in  the  Civil  War. 

The  county's  participation  in  that  defence 
was  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  raising  of  a 
single  regiment.  Quite  as  many,  perhaps  more, 
of  its  sons  were  enrolled  in  other  commands  as 
made  up  what  was  known  originally  as  the 
Nineteenth  Connecticut  Volunteer  Infantry; 
but  in  that  body  its  organized  effort  as  a  county 
found  expression,  and  it  was  proud  to  let  the 
splendid  record  of  that  body  stand  as  typical  of 
its  sacrifices  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

Though  the  history  of  that  regiment's  career 
has  been  written  in  full  detail,  the  purpose  of 
this  slight  repetition  of  the  story  needs  no 
apology.  There  is  sufficient  justification  in  its 
intrinsic  interest,  to  say  nothing  of  a  personal 
interest  in  its  members,  men  who  gave  such 
proofs  of  their  quality,  and  whose  survivors  are 
still  our  neighbors  in  probably  every  town  in 
the  county. 


PREFATORY 

There  is  also  something  more  than  mere  in 
terest  to  be  gained,  in  considering  historical 
matters  of  such  immensity  as  the  Civil  War, 
in  giving  the  attention  to  some  minute  sec 
tion  of  the  whole,  such  as  the  account  of 
individual  experiences,  or  of  the  career  of  a 
particular  regiment  such  as  this;  it  is  of 
great  value  as  bringing  an  adequate  realization 
of  the  actual  bearing  of  the  great  events  of 
that  time  upon  the  people  of  the  time.  The 
story  of  a  body  of  Litchfield  County  men,  such 
men  as  we  see  every  day.  drawn  from  such 
homes  as  we  know  all  about  us,  is  a  potent  help 
to  understanding  in  what  way  and  with  what 
aspects  these  great  historical  movements  bore 
upon  the  people  of  the  country,  for  the  expe 
rience  of  this  group  of  towns  and  their  sons  fur 
nished  but  one  small  instance  of  what  was 
borne,  infinitely  magnified,  throughout  the 
nation. 

It  will  readily  appear  that  the  subject  might 

xi 


PREFATORY 

furnish  material  for  a  notable  volume.  In  the 
present  case  nothing  is  possible  save  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  matter,  made  up  chiefly,  as  will  be 
seen,  of  citations  from  the  published  history  of 
the  regiment,  and  from  such  other  sources  of 
information  as  were  easily  accessible.  Among 
the  latter  must  be  noted  the  records  of  the  Regi 
mental  Association,  to  which  access  was  had 
through  the  courtesy  of  its  secretary,  D.  C.  Kil- 
bourn,  Esq.,  of  Litchfield,  and  his  assistance,  as 
well  as  that  of  H.  W.  Wessells,  Esq.,  of  Litch 
field,  to  both  of  whom  the  securing  of  most 
of  the  illustrations  used  is  due,  is  gratefully 
acknowledged. 


Xll 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 


OF  THE 

-R3ITY 

OF 


IN  spite  of  the  labors  of  unnumbered 
chroniclers,  it  is  not  easy,  if  in 
deed  it  is  possible,  for  us  of  this 
later  generation  to  realize  ade 
quately  the  great  patriotic  upris 
ing  of  the  war  times. 

It  began  in  the  early  days  of  1861  with  the 
assault  on  Fort  Sumter,  which,  following  a 
long  and  trying  season  of  uncertainty,  fur 
nished  the  sudden  shock  that  resolved  the 
doubts  of  the  wavering  and  changed  the  opin 
ions  of  the  incredulous.  Immediately  there 
swept  over  all  the  northern  states  a  wave  of  in 
tense  national  feeling,  attended  by  scenes  of 

[33 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

patriotic  and  confident  enthusiasm  more  noisy 
than  far-sighted,  and  there  was  a  resulting  host 
of  volunteers,  who  went  forth  for  the  service  of 
ninety  days  with  the  largest  hopes,  and  propor 
tionate  ignorance  of  the  crisis  which  had  come 
to  the  nation.  Of  these  Connecticut  furnished 
more  than  her  allotted  share,  and  Litchfield 
County  a  due  proportion. 

The  climax  of  this  excited  period  was  sup 
plied  by  the  battle  of  Bull  Run.  There  was 
surprise,  and  almost  consternation,  at  the  first 
news  of  this  salutary  event,  but  quickly  follow 
ing,  a  renewed  rally  of  patriotic  feeling,  less 
excited  but  more  determined,  and  with  a  clearer 
apprehension  of  the  actual  situation.  The  en 
listment  of  volunteers  for  a  longer  term  had 
been  begun,  and  now  went  forward  briskly  for 
many  months ;  regiment  after  regiment  was  en 
rolled,  equipped,  and  sent  southward,  until,  in 
the  spring  of  1862,  the  force  of  this  movement 
began  to  spend  itself.  The  national  arms  had 
met  with  some  important  successes  during  the 
winter,  and  a  feeling  of  confidence  had  arisen 


A  SKETCH 

in  the  invincibility  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  which  had  been  gathering  and  organ 
izing  under  General  McClellan  for  what  the 
impatient  country  was  disposed  to  think  an  in 
terminable  time.  A  War  Department  order  in 
April,  1862,  putting  a  stop  to  recruiting  for  the 
armies,  added  to  the  confidence,  since  an  easy 
inference  could  be  drawn  from  it,  and  the  North 
settled  down  to  await  with  high  hopes  the  re 
sults  of  McClellan's  long  expected  advance. 

Then  came  the  campaign  on  the  Peninsula. 
At  first  there  was  but  meagre  news  and  a  multi 
tude  of  conflicting  rumors  about  its  fierce  battles 
and  famous  retreat,  but  in  the  end  the  real 
ization  of  the  failure  of  this  mighty  effort.  To 
the  country  it  was  a  disappointment  literally 
stunning  in  its  proportions;  but  now  at  length 
there  was  revealed  the  magnitude  of  the  task 
confronting  the  nation,  and  again  there  sprang 
up  the  determination,  grim  and  intense,  to 
strain  every  nerve  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Union. 

The  President's  call  for  three  hundred  thou- 
C53 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

sand  men  to  serve  "for  three  years  or  the  war" 
was  proclaimed  to  this  state  by  Governor  Buck 
ingham  on  July  3rd  (1862),  and  evidence  was 
at  once  forthcoming  that  it  was  sternly  heeded 
by  the  people.  To  fill  Connecticut's  quota 
under  this  call,  it  was  proposed  that  regiments 
should  be  raised  by  counties.  A  convention  was 
promptly  called,  which  met  in  Litchfield  on 
July  22nd;  delegates  from  every  town  in  the 
county  were  in  attendance,  representatives  of 
all  shades  of  political  opinion  and  individual 
bias,  but  the  conclusions  of  the  meeting  were 
unanimously  reached.  It  was  resolved  that 
Litchfield  County  should  furnish  an  entire  regi 
ment  of  volunteers,  and  that  Leverett  W. 
Wessells,  at  that  time  Sheriff,  should  be  recom 
mended  as  its  commander. 

Immediate  steps  were  taken  to  render  this 
determination  effective;  the  Governor  promptly 
accepted  the  recommendation  as  to  the  colo 
nelcy,  recruiting  officers  were  designated  to 
secure  enlistments,  bounties  voted  by  the  dif 
ferent  towns  as  proposed  by  the  county  meeting, 

£63 


Rev.  Hiram  Eddy 


A  SKETCH 

and  the  movement  thoroughly  organized.     Al 
though  there  was  a  clear  appreciation  of  the 
present  need,  the  dozen  or  more  Connecticut 
regiments  already  in  the  field  had  drawn  a  large 
number  of  men  from  Litchfield  County,  and 
effort  was  necessary  to  gain  the  required  enroll 
ment.    There  had  been  many  opportunities  al 
ready  for  all  to  volunteer  who  had  any  wish  to 
do  so,  but  the  call  now  came  to  men  who  a  few 
weeks  before  had  hardly  dreamed  of  the  need 
of  their  serving;  men  not  to  be  attracted  by  the 
excitement  of  a  novel  adventure,  but  who  recog 
nized  soberly  the  duty  that  was  presenting  itself 
in  this  emergency,  and  men  of  a  very  different 
stamp  from  those  drawn  into  the  ranks  in  the 
later  years  of  the  war  by  enormous  bounties. 
It  is  reasonable  to  think  that  pride  in  the  success 
of  the  county's  effort  was  a  factor  in  stimulating 
enlistments;  announcement  that  a  draft  would 
be  resorted  to  later  was  doubtless  another.    Just 
at  this  time,  also,  the  return  from  a  year's  cap 
tivity  in  the  South  of  the  Rev.  Hiram  Eddy  of 
Winsted,  who  had  been  made  prisoner  at  Bull 

C73 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

Run,  furnished  a  powerful  advocate  to  the 
cause;  night  after  night  he  spoke  in  different 
towns,  urging  the  call  to  service  fervently  and 
with  effect. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  at  the  same  time  that 
this  endeavor  was  being  made  to  fill  the  ranks 
of  a  regiment  for  three  years'  service,  recruiting 
was  going  on  with  almost  equal  vigor  under  the 
call  for  men  to  serve  for  nine  months,  and  three 
full  companies  were  contributed  by  Litchfield 
County  to  the  Twenty-eighth  Infantry,  which 
bore  a  valiant  part  in  the  campaign  against  Port 
Hudson  in  the  following  summer.  It  is  possi 
ble  to  gain  some  idea  of  how  the  great  tides 
of  war  were  felt  throughout  the  whole  land 
by  imagining  the  stir  and  turmoil  thus 
brought,  in  the  summer  of  1862,  into  this  re 
mote  and  peaceful  quarter  by  the  engrossing 
struggle. 

IN  the  last  week  in  August,  the  necessary  num 
ber  of  recruits  having  been  secured,  the  dif 
ferent  companies  were  brought  together  in 


A  SKETCH 

Litchfield  and  marched  to  the  hill  overlooking 
the  town  which  had  been  selected  as  the  loca 
tion  of  Camp  Button,  named  in  honor  of  Lieu 
tenant  Henry  M.  Button,  who  had  fallen  in 
battle  at  Cedar  Mountain  shortly  before.  Lieu 
tenant  Button,  the  son  of  Governor  Henry 
Button,  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  in  the  class  of 
1857,  and  was  practising  law  in  Litchfield  when 
he  volunteered  for  service  on  the  organization 
of  the  Fifth  Connecticut  Infantry. 

The  interest  and  pride  of  the  county  in  its 
own  regiment  was  naturally  of  the  strongest; 
the  family  that  had  no  son  or  brother  or  cousin 
in  its  ranks  seemed  almost  the  exception,  and 
Camp  Button  became  at  once  the  goal  of  a 
ceaseless  stream  of  visitors  from  far  and  near, 
somewhat  to  the  prejudice  of  those  principles 
of  military  order  and  discipline  which  had  now 
to  be  acquired.  The  preparation  and  drill 
which  employed  the  scant  two  weeks  spent  here 
were  supervised  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Kel 
logg,  fresh  from  McClellan's  army  in  Virginia, 
and  he  was  afterwards  reported  as  delivering 

[93 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

the  opinion  that  if  there  were  nine  hundred  men 
in  the  camp,  there  were  certainly  nine  thousand 
women  most  of  the  time. 

With  all  possible  haste,  preparations  were 
made  for  an  early  departure,  but  there  was  op 
portunity  for  a  formal  mustering  of  the  regi 
ment  in  Litchfield,  when  a  fine  set  of  colors  was 
presented  by  William  Curtis  Noyes,  Esq.,  in 
behalf  of  his  wife.  A  horse  for  the  Colonel  was 
given  also,  by  the  Hon.  Robbins  Battell,  saddle 
and  equipments  by  Judge  Origen  S.  Seymour, 
and  a  sword  by  the  deputies  who  had  served 
under  Sheriff  Wessells. 

On  September  i^th  (1862),  the  eight  hun 
dred  and  eighty-nine  officers  and  men  now  mus 
tered  as  the  Nineteenth  Connecticut  Volunteer 
Infantry  broke  camp,  made  their  first  march  to 
East  Litchfield  station,  and  started  for  the 
South,  with  the  entire  population  for  miles 
around  gathered  to  witness,  not  as  a  holiday 
spectacle,  but  as  a  farewell,  grave  with  signifi 
cance,  the  departure  of  the  county  regiment. 

"In  order  to  raise  it,"  says  the  regimental  his- 


A  SKETCH 

tory,  "Litchfield  County  had  given  up  the 
flower  of  her  youth,  the  hope  and  pride  of  hun 
dreds  of  families,  and  they  had  by  no  means 
enlisted  to  fight  for  a  superior  class  of  men  at 
home.  There  was  no  superior  class  at  home. 
In  moral  qualities,  in  social  worth,  in  every  civil 
relation,  they  were  the  best  that  Connecticut 
had  to  give.  More  than  fifty  of  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  regiment  subsequently  found  their 
way  to  commissions,  and  at  least  a  hundred 
more  proved  themselves  not  a  whit  less  compe 
tent  or  worthy  to  wear  sash  and  saber  if  it  had 
been  their  fortune." 

THE  regimental  officers  were :  Colonel,  Leverett 
W.  Wessells,  Litchfield;  lieutenant-colonel, 
Elisha  S.  Kellogg,  Derby;  major,  Nathaniel 
Smith,  Woodbury;  adjutant,  Charles  J.  Dem- 
ing,  Litchfield;  quartermaster,  Bradley  D.  Lee, 
Barkhamsted;  chaplain,  Jonathan  A.  Wain- 
wright,  Torrington;  surgeon,  Henry  Plumb, 
New  Milford. 

Colonel  Wessells,  a  native  of  Litchfield,  and 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

a  brother  of  General  Henry  W.  Wessells  of  the 
regular  army,  had  been  prominent  in  public  af 
fairs  before  the  war,  and  served  for  twelve 
years  as  Sheriff.  Ill  health  interfered  with  his 
service  with  the  regiment  from  the  first,  and 
finally  compelled  his  resignation  in  September, 
1 863.  Later  he  was  appointed  Provost  Marshal 
for  the  Fourth  District  of  Connecticut,  and  for 
many  years  after  the  war  was  active  in  civil 
affairs,  being  the  candidate  for  State  Treasurer 
on  the  Republican  ticket  in  1868,  Quartermas 
ter-General  on  Governor  Andrews'  staff,  and 
member  of  the  General  Assembly.  He  died  at 
Dover,  Delaware,  April  4,  1895. 


•ASHINGTON  in  September,  1862, 
1  while  relatively  secure  from  the 
easy  capture  which  would  have 
been  possible  in  the  summer  of 
the  previous  year,  was  not  in  a 
situation  of  such  safety  as  to  preclude  anxiety, 
for  Pope  had  just  been  beaten  at  Bull  Run  and 
Lee's  army  was  north  of  the  Potomac  in  the  first 
of  its  memorable  invasions  of  the  loyal  states. 
On  the  very  day  of  his  check  at  Antietam,  Sep 
tember  lyth,  the  Nineteenth  Connecticut  Vol 
unteers  reached  the  capital,  and  the  next  day 
moved  into  the  hostile  state  of  Virginia, 
bivouacking  near  Alexandria. 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

In  this  vicinity  the  regiment  was  destined  to 
remain  for  many  months,  and  to  learn,  as  far  as 
was  possible  without  the  grim  teachings  of  actual 
experience,  the  business  for  which  it  was  gath 
ered.  At  first  there  was  a  constant  expectation 
of  orders  to  join  the  army  in  active  operations; 
the  county  newspapers  for  many  weeks  noted 
regularly  that  the  regiment  was  still  near  Alex 
andria,  "but  orders  to  march  are  hourly  ex 
pected."  It  was  good  fortune,  however,  that 
none  came,  for  not  a  little  of  the  credit  of  its 
later  service  was  due  to  the  proficiency  in  dis 
cipline  and  soldierly  qualities  gained  in  the 
long  months  now  spent  in  preparation. 

The  task  of  giving  the  necessary  military 
education  to  the  thousand  odd  men  fresh  from 
the  ordinary  routine  of  rural  Connecticut  life, 
fell  upon  the  shoulders  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Kellogg,  and  by  all  the  testimony  available, 
most  of  all  by  the  splendid  proof  they  later 
gave,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  entrusted  to  a  master 
hand.  Matters  of  organization  and  administra 
tion  at  first  engrossed  Colonel  Wessells'  atten- 


i«rt 


HE 

''VERSiTY 

OF 


A  SKETCH 

tion;  ill  health  soon  supervened,  and  later  he 
was  given  the  command  of  a  brigade.  The  regi 
ment  from  its  beginning  was  Kellogg's,  and  he 
received  in  due  course  the  commission  vacated 
by  its  first  commander  in  September,  1863. 

A  thorough  and  well-tried  soldier  himself,  he 
quickly  gained  the  respect  of  his  command  by 
his  complete  competency,  and  its  strong  and 
admiring  affection  was  not  slow  in  following. 
There  are  men  among  us  to  this  day  for  whom 
no  superlatives  are  adequate  to  give  expression 
to  their  feelings  in  regard  to  him.  As  the  regi 
mental  history  records  of  their  career  "there  is 
not  a  scene,  a  day,  nor  a  memory  from  Camp 
Dutton  to  Grapevine  Point  that  can  be  wholly 
divested  of  Kellogg.  Like  the  ancient  Eastern 
king  who  suddenly  died  on  the  eve  of  an  en 
gagement,  and  whose  remains  were  bolstered 
up  in  warlike  attitude  in  his  chariot,  and  fol 
lowed  by  his  enthusiastic  soldiers  to  battle  and 
to  victory,  so  this  mighty  leader,  although  fall 
ing  in  the  very  first  onset,  yet  went  on  through 
every  succeeding  march  and  fight,  and  won  post- 

D5I1 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

humous  victories  for  the  regiment  which  maybe 
said  to  have  been  born  of  his  loins.  Battalion 
and  company,  officer  and  private,  arms  and 
quarters,  camp  and  drill,  command  and  obe 
dience,  honor  and  duty,  esprit  and  excellence, 
every  moral  and  material  belonging  of  the  regi 
ment,  bore  the  impress  of  his  genius.  In  the 
eyes  of  civilians,  Colonel  Kellogg  was  nothing 
but  a  horrid,  strutting,  shaggy  monster.  But 
request  any  one  of  the  survivors  of  the  Nine 
teenth  Infantry  or  the  Second  Artillery  to  name 
the  most  perfect  soldier  he  ever  saw,  and  this  will 
surely  be  the  man.  Or  ask  him  to  conjure  up  the 
ideal  soldier  of  his  imagination,  still  the  same 
figure,  complete  in  feature,  gesture,  gauntlet, 
saber,  boot,  spur,  observant  eye  and  command 
ing  voice,  will  stalk  with  majestic  port  upon  the 
mental  vision.  He  seemed  the  superior  of  all 
superiors,  and  major-generals  shrunk  into  pigmy 
corporals  in  comparison  with  him.  In  every 
faculty  of  body,  mind,  heart,  and  soul  he  was 
built  after  a  large  pattern.  His  virtues  were 
large  and  his  vices  were  not  small.  As  Lincoln 


A  SKETCH 

said  of  Seward,  he  could  swear  magnificently. 
His  nature  was  versatile,  and  full  of  contradic 
tions  ;  sometimes  exhibiting  the  tenderest  sensi 
bilities  and  sometimes  none  at  all.  Now  he 
would  be  in  the  hospital  tent  bending  with 
streaming  eyes  over  the  victims  of  fever,  and 
kissing  the  dying  Corporal  Webster,  and  an 
hour  later  would  find  him  down  at  the  guard 
house,  prying  open  the  jaws  of  a  refractory  sol 
dier  with  a  bayonet  in  order  to  insert  a  gag;  or 
in  anger  drilling  a  battalion,  for  the  fault  of  a 
single  man,  to  the  last  point  of  endurance;  or 
shamefully  abusing  the  most  honorable  and 
faithful  officers  in  the  regiment.  In  rage,  deaf 
as  the  sea,  hasty  as  fire.3  But  notwithstanding 
his  frequent  ill  treatment  of  officers  and  sol 
diers,  he  had  a  hold  on  their  affections  such  as 
no  other  commander  ever  had,  or  could  have. 
The  men  who  were  cursing  him  one  day  for  the 
almost  intolerable  rigors  of  his  discipline,  would 
in  twenty-four  hours  be  throwing  up  their  caps 
for  him,  or  subscribing  to  buy  him  a  new  horse, 
or  petitioning  the  Governor  not  to  let  him  be 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

jumped.  The  man  who  sat  on  a  sharp-backed 
wooden  horse  in  front  of  the  guard  house,  would 
sometimes  watch  the  motions  of  the  Colonel  on 
drill  or  parade,  until  he  forgot  the  pain  and  dis 
grace  of  his  punishment  in  admiration  of  the 
man  who  inflicted  it." 

It  is  not  hard  to  understand  the  hold  he 
gained,  through  a  personality  so  striking  and 
forceful,  upon  the  men  of  his  command;  they 
were  but  boys  for  the  most  part,  in  point  of  fact, 
and  open  to  the  influence  of  just  such  strength, 
and  perhaps  also  just  such  weaknesses,  as  they 
saw  in  this  splendidly  virile  and  genuine,  and 
very  human  character. 

Colonel  Kellogg  was  a  Litchfield  County 
man,  a  native  of  New  Hartford,  and  at  this  time 
about  thirty-eight  years  of  age.  His  education 
was  not  of  the  schools,  but  gained  from  years 
of  adventurous  life  as  sailor,  gold-hunter,  and 
wanderer.  Shortly  before  the  war  he  had  set 
tled  in  his  native  state,  but  he  responded  to  the 
call  for  the  national  defence  among  the  very 
first,  and  before  the  organization  of  the  Nine- 


A  SKETCH 

teenth  had  served  as  Major  of  the  First  Con 
necticut  Artillery.  He  lies  buried  in  Winsted. 

FOR  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  the  regiment 
was  numbered  among  the  defenders  of  the  capi 
tal,  removing  after  a  few  months  from  the  im 
mediate  neighborhood  of  Alexandria,  and  being 
stationed  among  the  different  forts  and  redoubts 
which  formed  the  line  of  defence  south  of  the 
Potomac. 

Important  as  its  service  there  was,  and  novel 
as  it  must  have  been  to  Litchfield  County  boys, 
it  was  not  marked  by  incidents  of  any  note,  and 
furnished  nothing  to  attract  attention  among 
the  general  and  absorbing  operations  of  the  war. 
It  was,  still,  of  vast  interest  to  the  people  of  the 
home  towns.  The  county  newspapers  had  many 
letters  to  print  in  those  days  from  the  soldiers 
themselves,  and  from  visitors  from  home,  who 
in  no  inconsiderable  numbers  were  journeying 
down  to  look  in  upon  them  constantly.  There 
were  of  course  matters  of  various  nature  which 
gave  rise  to  complaints  of  different  degrees  of 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

seriousness;  there  was  not  unnaturally  much 
sickness  among  the  men  in  the  early  part  of 
their  service ;  there  were  political  campaigns  at 
home,  in  which  the  volunteers  had  and  showed 
a  strong  interest;  there  was  a  regrettable  quar 
rel  among  the  officers  in  which  Lieutenant-Colo 
nel  Kellogg  was  placed  in  an  unfortunate  light, 
and  the  termination  of  which  gave  the  men  an 
opportunity  of  showing  their  feeling  for  him. 
All  these  matters  were  well  aired  in  type; 
meanwhile  the  regiment,  doing  well  such 
duty  as  was  laid  upon  it,  grew  in  efficiency  for 
hard  and  active  service  when  it  should  be 
called  for. 

The  possibility  of  a  call  to  action  at  almost 
any  minute  was  seen  in  April,  1863,  when  orders 
came  that  the  regiment  be  held  ready  to  march. 
Reinforcements  were  going  forward  to  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  now  under  Hooker,  in  large 
numbers ;  but  the  Nineteenth  was  finally  left  in 
the  Defences.  Thus  months  were  passed  in  the 
routine  of  drill  and  parade,  guard  mounting 
and  target  practice,  varied  by  brief  and  rare  fur- 

C20] 


A  SKETCH 

loughs,  while  the  lightnings  of  the  mighty 
conflict  raging  so  near  left  them  untouched. 
"Yet,"  it  is  related,  "a  good  many  seemed  to  be 
in  all  sorts  of  affliction,  and  were  constantly 
complaining  because  they  could  not  go  to  the 
front.  A  year  later,  when  the  soldiers  of  the 
Nineteenth  were  staggering  along  the  Pamun- 
key,  with  heavy  loads  and  blistered  feet,  or 
throwing  up  breastworks  with  their  coffee-pots 
all  night  under  fire  in  front  of  Petersburg,  they 
looked  back  to  the  Defences  of  Washington  as 
to  a  lost  Elysium." 

IT  was  in  November,  1863,  that  the  War  De 
partment  orders  were  issued  changing  the  Nine 
teenth  Infantry  to  a  regiment  of  heavy  artillery, 
which  Governor  Buckingham  denominated  the 
Second  Connecticut.  Artillery  drill  had  for 
some  time  been  part  of  its  work,  and  the  general 
efficiency  and  good  record  of  the  regiment  in  all 
particulars  was  responsible  for  the  change, 
which  was  a  welcome  one,  as  the  artillery  was 
considered  a  very  desirable  branch  of  the  ser- 

013 


THE  COUNTY   REGIMENT 

vice,  and  the  increase  in  size  gave  prospects  of 
speedier  promotions. 

Recruiting  had  been  necessary  almost  all  the 
time  to  keep  the  regiment  up  to  the  numerical 
standard;  death  and  the  discharge  for  disability 
had  been  operating  from  the  first.  It  was  now 
needful  to  fill  it  up  to  the  artillery  standard  of 
eighteen  hundred  men,  and  this  was  success 
fully  accomplished.  Officers  and  men  were 
despatched  to  Connecticut  to  gather  recruits, 
and  their  advertisements  set  forth  enticingly 
the  advantage  of  joining  a  command  so  com 
fortably  situated  as  "this  famous  regiment"  in 
the  Defences  of  Washington,  where,  it  was  per 
missible  to  infer,  it  was  permanently  stationed, 
a  belief  which  had  come  to  be  generally  held. 
The  effort,  however,  was  not  confined  by  geo 
graphical  limits,  and  a  large  part  of  the  men 
secured  were  strangers  to  Litchfield  County. 
Before  the  1st  of  March,  1864,  over  eleven 
hundred  recruits  were  received,  and  with  the 
nucleus  of  the  old  regiment  quickly  formed  into 
an  efficient  command. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


A  SKETCH 

"This  vast  body  of  recruits  was  made  up  of 
all  sorts  of  men,"  the  history  of  the  regiment 
states.  "A  goodly  portion  of  them  were  no  less 
intelligent,  patriotic,  and  honorable  than  the 
'old'  Nineteenth — and  that  is  praise  enough. 
Another  portion  of  them  were  not  exactly  the 
worst  kind  of  men,  but  those  adventurous  and 
uneasy  varlets  who  always  want  to  get  out  of 
jail  when  they  are  in,  and  in  when  they  are  out; 
furloughed  sailors,  for  example,  who  had  en 
listed  just  for  fun,  while  ashore,  with  no  definite 
purpose  of  remaining  in  the  land  service  for  any 
tedious  length  of  time.  And,  lastly,  there  were 
about  three  hundred  of  the  most  thorough  paced 
villains  that  the  stews  and  slums  of  New  York 
and  Baltimore  could  furnish — bounty- jumpers, 
thieves,  and  cut-throats,  who  had  deserted  from 
regiment  after  regiment  in  which  they  had  en 
listed  under  fictitious  names  and  who  now  pro 
posed  to  repeat  the  operation.  And  they  did 
repeat  it.  No  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
deserted  before  the  middle  of  May,  very  few  of 
whom  were  ever  retaken  and  returned  to  the 

[23] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

regiment.  There  were  rebels  in  Alexandria  who 
furnished  deserters  with  citizens'  clothes  and 
thus  their  capture  became  almost  impossible." 

At  first,  and  perhaps  to  some  extent  always, 
there  was  a  mental  distinction  made  by  the  men 
between  those  who  had  originally  enlisted  in 
the  "old  Nineteenth,"  and  the  large  body  which 
was  now  joined  to  that  organization,  many  of 
whom  had  never  seen  the  Litchfield  hills.  But 
there  was  enough  character  in  the  original  body 
to  give  its  distinct  tone  to  the  enlarged  regi 
ment;  its  officers  were  all  of  the  first  enlistment, 
and  the  common  sufferings  and  successes  which 
soon  fell  to  their  lot  quickly  deprived  this  dis 
tinction  of  any  invidiousness.  The  Second  Ar 
tillery  was  always  known,  and  proudly  known, 
as  the  Litchfield  County  Regiment. 


[24] 


HERE  came  to  the  Second  Connecti 
cut  Heavy  Artillery,  on  May  17, 
1864,  the  summons  which,  after 
such  long  immunity,  it  had  almost 
ceased  to  expect. 
The  preceding  two  weeks  had  been  among 
the  most  eventful  of  the  war.  They  had  seen 
the  crossing  of  the  Rapidan  by  Grant  on  the 
4th,  and  the  terrible  battles  for  days  follow 
ing  in  the  Wilderness  and  at  Spottsylvania,  de 
pleting  the  army  by  such  enormous  losses  as 
even  this  war  had  hardly  seen  before.  Heavy 
reinforcements  were  demanded  and  sent  for 
ward  from  all  branches  of  the  service;  in  the 

[25] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

emergency  this  artillery  regiment  was  sum 
moned  to  fight  as  infantry,  and  so  served  until 
the  end  of  the  conflict,  though  for  a  long  time 
with  a  hope,  which  survived  many  disappoint 
ments,  of  being  assigned  to  its  proper  work  with 
the  heavy  guns. 

It  started  for  the  front  on  May  i8th  (1864), 
and  on  the  2Oth  reached  the  headquarters 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  was  assigned 
to  the  Second  Brigade,  First  Division,  of  the 
Sixth  Corps,  now  under  Major-General  Horatio 
G.  Wright,  another  leader  of  Connecticut 
origin,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  command  of 
the  Corps  on  the  death  a  few  days  before  of 
Litchfield  County's  most  noted  soldier,  John 
Sedgwick. 

The  famous  series  of  movements  "by  the  left 
flank"  was  in  progress,  and  the  regiment  was  in 
active  motion  at  once.  For  more  than  a  week 
following  its  arrival  at  the  front  it  was  on  the 
march  practically  all  the  time  while  Grant 
pushed  southward.  To  troops  unaccustomed  to 
anything  more  arduous  than  drilling  in  the  De 
ll  26  3 


General  Sedgwick 


A  SKETCH 

fences  at  Washington,  it  was  almost  beyond  the 
limits  of  endurance.  At  the  start,  without  ex 
perience  in  campaigning,  the  men  had  overbur 
dened  themselves  with  impedimenta  which  it 
was  very  soon  necessary  to  dispense  with.  "The 
amount  of  personal  effects  then  thrown  away," 
wrote  the  chaplain,  Rev.  Winthrop  H.  Phelps, 
"has  been  estimated  by  officers  who  witnessed 
and  have  carefully  calculated  it,  to  be  from 
twenty  to  thirty  thousand  dollars.  To  this 
amount  must  be  added  the  loss  to  the  Govern 
ment  in  the  rations  and  ammunition  left  on  the 
way."  On  some  of  the  marches  days  were 
passed  with  scarcely  anything  to  eat,  and  it  is 
recorded  that  raw  corn  was  eagerly  gathered, 
kernel  by  kernel,  in  empty  granaries,  and  eaten 
with  a  relish.  Heat,  dust,  rain,  mud,  and  a  rate 
of  movement  which  taxed  to  the  utmost  the 
powers  of  the  strongest,  gave  to  these  untried 
troops  a  savage  hint  of  the  hardships  of  cam 
paigning,  into  which  they  had  been  plunged 
without  any  gradual  steps  of  breaking  in,  and 
much  more  terrible  experiences  were  close  at 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

hand.  Of  these  there  came  a  slight  foretaste  in 
a  skirmish  with  the  enemy  on  the  24th  near 
Jericho  Ford  on  the  North  Anna  River,  result 
ing  in  the  death  of  one  man  and  the  wounding 
of  three  others,  the  first  of  what  was  soon  to  be 
a  portentous  list  of  casualties. 

THE  movements  of  both  armies  were  bringing 
them  steadily  nearer  to  Richmond,  and  but  one 
chance  now  remained  to  achieve  the  object  of 
the  campaign,  the  defeat  of  Lee's  army  north  of 
the  Chickahominy  and  away  from  the  strong 
defences  of  the  Confederate  capital.  The 
enemy,  swinging  southward  to  conform  to 
Grant's  advance,  finally  reached  the  important 
point  of  Cold  Harbor  on  May  3 1st.  Cav 
alry  was  sent  forward  to  dislodge  him,  and 
seized  some  of  the  entrenchments  near  that 
place,  while  both  armies  were  hurried  forward 
for  the  inevitable  battle.  The  Sixth  Corps,  of 
which  the  Second  Artillery  was  part,  reached  its 
position  on  the  extreme  left  near  noon  on 
June  1st,  having  marched  since  midnight,  and 


A  SKETCH 

awaited  the  placing  of  other  troops  before  the 
charge,  which  had  been  ordered  to  take  place  at 
five  o'clock. 

It  would  have  been  a  fearful  waiting  for 
these  men  could  they  have  known  what  was  in 
store  for  them.  But  they  were  drugged,  as  it 
were,  with  utter  fatigue;  the  almost  constant 
movement  of  their  two  weeks  of  active  service 
had  left  them  "so  nearly  dead  with  marching 
and  want  of  sleep"  that  they  could  not  notice 
or  comprehend  the  significant  movements  of  the 
columns  of  troops  about  them  preparing  for 
battle,  or  the  artillery  which  soon  opened  fire  on 
both  sides ;  their  stupor,  it  is  related,  was  of  a 
kind  that  none  can  describe.  They  heard  with 
out  excitement  the  earnest  instructions  of 
Colonel  Kellogg,  who,  in  pride  and  anxiety  at 
this  first  trial  of  his  beloved  command,  was 
in  constant  consultation  with  officers  and 
men,  directing,  encouraging,  explaining.  "He 
marked  out  on  the  ground,"  writes  one  of  his 
staff,  "the  shape  of  the  works  to  be  taken, — told 
the  officers  what  dispositions  to  make  of  the  dif- 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

ferent  battalions, — how  the  charge  was  to  be 
made, — spoke  of  our  reputation  as  a  band-box 
regiment,  'Now  we  are  called  on  to  show  what 
we  can  do  at  fighting.'  '  The  brigade  com 
mander,  General  Emory  Upton,  was  also  watch 
ing  closely,  this  new  regiment  which  had  never 
been  in  battle.  But  all  foreboding  was  spared 
most  of  the  men  through  sheer  exhaustion. 

At  about  the  appointed  time,  five  in  the  after 
noon,  the  regiment  was  moved  in  three  bat 
talions  of  four  companies  each  out  of  the  breast 
works  where  it  had  lain  through  the  afternoon, 
leaving  knapsacks  behind,  stationed  for  a  few 
moments  among  the  scanty  pine-woods  in  front, 
and  then  at  the  word  of  command  started  forth 
upon  its  fateful  journey,  the  Colonel  in  the 
lead. 

The  first  battalion,  with  the  colors  in  the 
centre,  moved  at  a  double  quick  across  the  open 
field  under  a  constantly  thickening  fire,  over 
the  enemy's  first  line  of  rifle  pits  which  was 
abandoned  at  its  approach,  and  onward  to  the 
main  line  of  breastworks  with  a  force  and  im- 


A  SKETCH 

petus  which  would  have  carried  it  over  this 
like  Niagara  but  for  an  impassable  obstruction. 
Says  the  regimental  history,  "There  had  been  a 
thick  growth  of  pine  sprouts  and  saplings  on 
this  ground,  but  the  rebels  had  cut  them,  proba 
bly  that  very  day,  and  had  arranged  them  so  as 
to  form  a  very  effective  abatis, — thereby  clear 
ing  the  spot  and  thus  enabling  them  to  see  our 
movements.  Up  to  this  point  there  had  been 
no  firing  sufficient  to  confuse  or  check  the  bat 
talion,  but  here  the  rebel  musketry  opened.  A 
sheet  of  flame,  sudden  as  lightning,  red  as  blood, 
and  so  near  that  it  seemed  to  singe  the  men's 
faces,  burst  along  the  rebel  breastwork,  and  the 
ground  and  trees  close  behind  our  line  was 
ploughed  and  riddled  with  a  thousand  balls 
that  just  missed  the  heads  of  the  men.  The 
battalion  dropped  flat  on  the  ground,  and  the 
second  volley,  like  the  first,  nearly  all  went 
over.  Several  men  were  struck,  but  not  a  large 
number.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  if  there 
had  been  no  other  than  this  front  fire,  the  rebel 
breastworks  would  have  been  ours,  notwith- 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

standing  the  pine  boughs.  But  at  that  moment 
a  long  line  of  rebels  on  our  left,  having  nothing 
in  their  own  front  to  engage  their  attention,  and 
having  unobstructed  range  on  the  battalion, 
opened  a  fire  which  no  human  valor  could 
withstand,  and  which  no  pen  can  adequately  de 
scribe.  It  was  the  work  of  almost  a  single  min 
ute.  The  air  was  filled  with  sulphurous  smoke, 
and  the  shrieks  and  howls  of  more  than  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  mangled  men  rose  above  the  yells 
of  triumphant  rebels  and  the  roar  of  their  mus 
ketry.  'About  face,'  shouted  Colonel  Kellogg, 
but  it  was  his  last  command.  He  had  already 
been  struck  in  the  arm,  and  the  words  had 
scarcely  passed  his  lips  when  another  shot 
pierced  his  head,  and  he  fell  dead  upon  the  in 
terlacing  pine  boughs.  Wild  and  blind  with 
wounds,  bruises,  noise,  smoke,  and  conflicting 
orders,  the  men  staggered  in  every  direction, 
some  of  them  falling  upon  the  very  top  of  the 
rebel  parapet,  where  they  were  completely  rid 
dled  with  bullets, — others  wandering  off  into 
the  woods  on  the  right  and  front,  to  find  their 

[32] 


A  SKETCH 

way  to  death  by  starvation  at  Andersonville,  or 
never  to  be  heard  of  again." 

The  second  battalion  had  advanced  at  an  in 
terval  of  about  seventy-five  yards  after  the 
first,  and  the  third  had  followed  in  turn,  but 
they  were  ordered  by  General  Upton  to  lie 
down  as  they  approached  the  entrenchments. 
They  could  not  fire  without  injury  to  the  line  in 
front,  and  could  only  hold  their  dangerous  and 
trying  position  in  readiness  to  support  their 
comrades  ahead,  protecting  themselves  as  they 
could  from  the  fire  that  seemed  like  leaden  hail. 
There  was  no  suggestion  of  retreat  at  any  point 
and  several  hundred  of  the  enemy,  taking  advan 
tage  of  a  lull  in  the  firing,  streamed  over  the 
breastworks  and  gave  themselves  up,  but 
through  a  misunderstanding  of  the  case  the 
credit  of  their  capture  was  given  to  other  regi 
ments,  though  clearly  due  to  this. 

The  history  continues:  "The  lines  now  be 
came  very  much  mixed.  Those  of  the  first  bat 
talion  who  were  not  killed  or  wounded  gradu 
ally  crawled  or  worked  back;  wounded  men 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

were  carried  through  to  the  rear;  and  the  woods 
began  to  grow  dark,  either  with  night  or  smoke 
or  both.  The  companies  were  formed  and 
brought  up  to  the  breastworks  one  by  one,  and 
the  line  extended  toward  the  left.  The  enemy 
soon  vacated  the  breastwork  in  our  immediate 
front,  and  crept  off  through  the  darkness." 
Throughout  the  terrible  night  they  held  their 
ground,  keeping  up  a  constant  fire  to  prevent 
an  attempt  by  the  enemy  to  reoccupy  the  line, 
until  they  were  relieved  in  the  early  morning  by 
other  troops ;  they  had  secured  a  position  which 
it  was  indispensable  to  hold,  and  the  line  thus 
gained  remained  the  regiment's  front  during  its 
stay  at  Cold  Harbor.  Until  June  12th  the  posi 
tion  was  kept  confronting  the  enemy,  whose 
line  was  parallel  and  close  before  it,  while  daily 
additions  were  made  to  the  list  of  casualties  as 
they  labored  in  strengthening  the  protective 
works. 

The  official  report  of  General  Upton  reads  in 
part  as  follows :  "The  Second  Connecticut,  anx 
ious  to  prove  its  courage,  moved  to  the  assault 

C34H 


A  SKETCH 

in  beautiful  order.  Crossing  an  open  field  it 
entered  a  pine-wood,  passed  down  a  gentle  de 
clivity  and  up  a  slight  ascent.  Here  the  charge 
was  checked.  For  seventy  feet  in  front  of  the 
works  the  trees  had  been  felled,  interlocking 
with  each  other  and  barring  all  further  advance. 
Two  paths  several  yards  apart,  and  wide 
enough  for  four  men  to  march  abreast,  led 
through  the  obstruction.  Up  these  to  the  foot 
of  the  works  the  brave  men  rushed  but  were 
swept  away  by  a  converging  fire.  Unable  to 
carry  the  intrenchments,  I  directed  the  men 
to  lie  down  and  not  return  the  fire.  Opposite 
the  right  the  works  were  carried.  The  regi 
ment  was  marched  to  the  point  gained  and, 
moving  to  the  left,  captured  the  point  first  at 
tacked.  In  this  position  without  support  on 
either  flank  the  Second  Connecticut  fought  till 
three  A.M.,  when  the  enemy  fell  back  to  a  second 
line  of  works." 

The  regimental  history  continues:  "On  the 
morning  of  the  2nd  the  wounded  who  still 
remained  were  got  off  to  the  rear,  and  taken  to 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

the  Division  Hospital  some  two  miles  back. 
Many  of  them  had  lain  all  night,  with  shattered 
bones,  or  weak  with  loss  of  blood,  calling  vainly 
for  help,  or  water,  or  death.  Some  of  them  lay 
in  positions  so  exposed  to  the  enemy's  fire  that 
they  could  not  be  reached  until  the  breastworks 
had  been  built  up  and  strengthened  at  certain 
points,  nor  even  then  without  much  ingenuity 
and  much  danger;  but  at  length  they  were  all 
removed.  Where  it  could  be  done  with  safety, 
the  dead  were  buried  during  the  day.  Most  of 
the  bodies,  however,  could  not  be  reached  until 
night,  and  were  then  gathered  and  buried  under 
cover  of  the  darkness.55 

The  regiment's  part  in  the  charge  of  June  3rd, 
the  disastrous  movement  of  the  whole  Union 
line  against  the  Confederate  works,  which 
Grant  admitted  never  should  have  been  made, 
was  attended  with  casualties  which  by  com 
parison  with  the  slaughter  of  the  1st  seemed 
inconsiderable.  There  were,  in  fact,  losses  in 
killed  and  wounded  on  almost  all  of  the  twelve 
days  of  its  stay  at  Cold  Harbor,  but  the  fatal 

[36H 


A  SKETCH 

1st  of  June  greatly  overshadowed  the  remain 
ing  time,  and  that  first  action  was  indeed  incom 
parably  the  most  severe  the  Second  Connecticut 
ever  saw.  Its  loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  in 
fact,  is  said  to  have  been  greater  than  that  of 
any  other  Connecticut  regiment  in  any  single 
battle. 

The  reputation  of  a  fighting  regiment,  which 
its  fallen  leader  had  predicted,  was  amply 
earned  by  that  unfaltering  advance  against  in- 
trenchments  manned  by  Lee's  veterans,  and 
that  tenacious  defence  of  the  position  gained, 
but  the  cost  was  appallingly  great.  The  record 
of  Cold  Harbor,  of  which  all  but  a  very  small 
proportion  was  incurred  on  June  1st,  is  given 
as  follows :  Killed  or  died  of  wounds,  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-one;  wounded,  but  not  mor 
tally,  one  hundred  and  ninety;  missing,  fifteen; 
prisoners,  three. 

General  Martin  T.  McMahon,  writing  of 
this  battle  in  "The  Century's"  series  of  war 
papers,  says:  "I  remember  at  one  point  a  mute 
and  pathetic  evidence  of  sterling  valor.  The 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

Second  Connecticut  Heavy  Artillery,  a  new 
regiment  eighteen  hundred  strong,  had  joined 
us  but  a  few  days  before  the  battle.  Its  uni 
form  was  bright  and  fresh;  therefore  its  dead 
were  easily  distinguished  where  they  lay.  They 
marked  in  a  dotted  line  an  obtuse  angle,  cover 
ing  a  wide  front,  with  its  apex  toward  the 
enemy,  and  there  upon  his  face,  still  in  death, 
with  his  head  to  the  works,  lay  the  Colonel,  the 
brave  and  genial  Colonel  Elisha  S.  Kellogg." 
Such  was  their  first  trial  in  battle. 


C383 


IMMEDIATELY  after  receiving  news 
of  the  action  of  June  1st,  Gov 
ernor  Buckingham  had  sent  a  com 
mission  as  colonel  to  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  James  Hubbard.  He, 
however,  was  unwilling  to  assume  the  responsi 
bility  of  the  command;  this  had  been  his  first 
battle,  and  he  "drew  the  hasty  inference  that 
all  the  fighting  was  likely  to  consist  of  a  similar 
walking  into  the  jaws  of  hell.  He  afterwards 
found  that  this  was  a  mistake." 

Upon  General  Upton's  advice,  therefore, 
the  officers  recommended  to  the  Governor  the 
appointment  of  Ranald  S.  Mackenzie,  then  a 

C393 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

captain  of  engineers  on  duty  at  headquarters, 
and  this  recommendation  being  favorably  en 
dorsed  by  superior  officers  up  to  the  Lieutenant- 
General,  was  accepted,  and  Colonel  Mackenzie 
took  command  on  June  6th. 

Of  the  man  who  was  now  to  lead  the  regi 
ment,  Grant  in  his  Memoirs  writes  twenty  years 
later  the  following  unqualified  judgment:  "I 
regarded  Mackenzie  as  the  most  promising 
young  officer  in  the  army.  Graduating  at  West 
Point  as  he  did  during  the  second  year  of  the 
war,  he  had  won  his  way  up  to  the  command  of 
a  corps  before  its  close.  This  he  did  upon  his 
own  merit  and  without  influence."  Such  a 
statement  from  such  a  quarter  is  enough  to  show 
that  once  more  the  Second  Connecticut  was  to 
be  commanded  by  a  soldier  of  more  than  ordi 
nary  qualities,  a  fact  which  was  not  long  in 
developing. 

Colonel  Mackenzie's  active  connection  with 
the  regiment  lasted  only  some  four  months,  but 
they  were  months  of  great  activity  and  afforded 
such  occasions  for  proof  of  his  abilities  that  his 


A  SKETCH 

speedy  promotion  was  inevitable.  He  never 
achieved  the  general  popularity  with  his  men 
that  had  come  to  his  predecessor,  nor  cared  to, 
but  he  did  gain  quite  as  thoroughly  their  re 
spect  through  his  mastership  of  the  business  in 
hand.  It  was  not  long  after  he  assumed  com 
mand  that,  as  the  regimental  history  says,  the 
men  "began  to  grieve  anew  over  the  loss  of 
Kellogg.  That  commander  had  chastised  us 
with  whips,  but  this  one  dealt  in  scorpions.  By 
the  time  we  reached  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  he 
had  so  far  developed  as  to  be  a  far  greater  ter 
ror,  to  both  officers  and  men,  than  Early 's  grape 
and  canister.  He  was  a  Perpetual  Punisher, 
and  the  Second  Connecticut  while  under  him 
was  always  a  punished  regiment.  There  is  a 
regimental  tradition  to  the  effect  that  a  well- 
defined  purpose  existed  among  the  men,  prior 
to  the  battle  of  Winchester,  to  dispose  of  this 
commanding  scourge  during  the  first  fight  that 
occurred.  If  he  had  known  it,  it  would  only 
have  excited  his  contempt,  for  he  cared  not  a 
copper  for  the  good  will  of  any  except  his  mili- 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

tary  superiors,  and  certainly  feared  no  man  of 
woman  born,  on  either  side  of  the  lines.  But 
the  purpose,  if  any  existed,  quailed  and  failed 
before  his  audacious  pluck  on  that  bloody  day. 
He  seemed  to  court  destruction  all  day  long. 
With  his  hat  aloft  on  the  point  of  his  saber  he 
galloped  over  forty-acre  fields,  through  a  per 
fect  hailstorm  of  rebel  lead  and  iron,  with  as 
much  impunity  as  though  he  had  been  a  ghost. 
The  men  hated  him  with  the  hate  of  hell,  but 
they  could  not  draw  bead  on  so  brave  a  man  as 
that.  Henceforth  they  firmly  believed  he  bore 
a  charmed  life." 

Colonel  Mackenzie's  advancement  was  bril 
liantly  rapid,  as  Grant  states,  and  at  the  time 
of  Lee's  surrender  he  was  in  command  of  a 
corps  of  cavalry,  which  had  shortly  before  taken 
an  important  part  in  the  battle  of  Five  Forks 
under  his  leadership. 

When  the  war  ended  he  became  colonel  of 
the  Twenty-fourth  Infantry  in  the  regular 
army,  and  later  received  a  cavalry  command, 
gaining  much  distinction  by  his  services  in  the 

[42] 


A  SKETCH 

Indian  campaigns  in  the  West  and  on  the  Mexi 
can  border.  He  was  made  brigadier-general  in 
1882,  shortly  after  placed  on  the  retired  list, 
and  died  at  Governor's  Island  in  1889. 

THE  unsuccessful  assault  on  Lee's  works  at 
Cold  Harbor  marked  the  end  of  the  first  part 
of  Grant's  campaign.  The  next  move  was  to 
swing  the  army  southward  to  the  line  of  the 
James  River  and  prepare  to  move  upon  Rich 
mond  and  its  defences  from  that  side.  This 
change  of  base  was  one  of  General  Grant's 
finest  achievements,  admirably  planned,  and 
so  skilfully  executed  that  for  three  days  Lee 
remained  in  total  ignorance  of  what  his  adver 
sary  was  doing.  The  Second  Connecticut  with 
drew  from  its  position  on  June  12th,  late  at 
night,  reached  the  river  on  the  i6th,  and, 
moving  up  it  in  transports,  was  disembarked 
and  sent  toward  Petersburg,  to  a  point  on  the 
left  wing  of  the  army.  It  reached  position 
on  the  night  of  the  igth  and  entrenched. 
The  usual  occurrences  of  such  marches  as  at- 

C43!J 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

tended  this  change  of  scene  were  varied  for  the 
men,  as  the  regimental  history  suggestively  re 
lates,  by  a  notable  circumstance — a  bath  in  the 
river.  "It  was  the  only  luxury  we  had  had  for 
weeks.  It  was  a  goodly  sight  to  see  half  a  dozen 
regiments  disporting  themselves  in  the  tepid 
waters  of  the  James.  But  no  reader  can  possi 
bly  understand  what  enjoyment  it  afforded,  un 
less  he  has  slept  on  the  ground  for  fourteen  days 
without  undressing,  and  been  compelled  to 
walk,  cook,  and  live  on  all  fours,  lest  a  perpen 
dicular  assertion  of  his  manhood  should  in 
stantly  convert  it  into  clay." 

The  operations  against  Petersburg  had  been 
going  on  for  some  time  when  the  regiment  ar 
rived,  and  for  two  days  it  lay  in  the  rifle  pits 
it  had  dug  under  continual  fire,  with  frequent 
resulting  casualties.  It  was  "the  most  intoler 
able  position  the  regiment  was  ever  required  to 
hold.  We  had  seen  a  deadlier  spot  at  Cold 
Harbor,  and  others  awaited  us  in  the  future; 
but  they  were  agonies  that  did  not  last.  Here, 
however,  we  had  to  stay,  hour  after  hour,  from 

[44] 


A  SKETCH 

before  dawn  until  after  dark,  and  that,  too, 
where  we  could  not  move  a  rod  without  extreme 
danger.  The  enemy's  line  was  parallel  with 
ours,  just  across  the  wheat  field;  then  they  had 
numerous  sharpshooters,  who  were  familiar  with 
every  acre  of  the  ground,  perched  in  tall  trees 
on  both  our  flanks;  then  they  had  artillery 
posted  everywhere.  No  man  could  cast  his  eyes 
over  the  parapet,  or  expose  himself  ten  feet  in 
the  rear  of  the  trench  without  drawing  fire. 
And  yet  they  did  thus  expose  themselves;  for 
where  there  are  even  chances  of  being  missed 
or  hit,  soldiers  will  take  the  chances  rather  than 
lie  still  and  suffer  from  thirst,  supineness,  and 
want  of  all  things.  There  was  no  getting  to  the 
rear  until  zig-zag  passages  were  dug,  and  then 
the  wounded  were  borne  off.  Our  occupation 
continued  during  the  night  and  the  next  day, 
the  regiment  being  divided  into  two  reliefs,  the 
one  off  duty  lying  a  little  to  the  rear,  in  a  corn 
field  near  Harrison's  house.  But  it  was  a  ques 
tion  whether  'off '  or  'on'  duty  was  the  more  dan 
gerous." 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

On  the  2 1st,  relieved  from  this  post,  the 
regiment  was  moved  to  a  new  position  further 
southwest  and  about  the  same  distance  from 
the  city  of  Petersburg,  which  lay  in  plain 
view  and  whose  city  clocks  could  be  heard  dis 
tinctly.  The  Sixth  Corps  was  engaged  in  an 
operation  having  the  purpose  of  breaking  Lee's 
communications  with  the  South  by  the  line  of 
the  Weldon  Railroad,  and  in  the  course  of  this 
the  Second  Connecticut  took  part  in  a  "sharp 
skirmish"  with  Hill's  Division,  on  June  22nd, 
an  affair  which  to  other  experiences  would  be 
notable  as  a  battle  of  some  proportions.  The 
desired  result  was  not  gained;  the  attempt  on 
Petersburg,  which  if  successful  might  have  has 
tened  the  end  of  the  Confederacy  by  six  months, 
and  which  came  so  near  success,  was  changed  to 
besieging  operations,  and  for  some  time  Grant's 
army  lay  comparatively  quiet.  In  its  four  days 
in  action  here,  the  regiment  suffered  as  follows : 
Killed  or  died  of  wounds,  fifteen ;  wounded  but 
not  mortally,  fifteen;  missing,  three;  prisoners 
who  died,  five. 


Colonel  Wessells 


,N  July  Qth  came  the  orders  which 
took  the  Second  Connecticut  for 
many  months  away  from  its  place 
before  Petersburg,  where,  after 
the  activities  described,  it  had  set 
tled  down  to  a  less  exciting  course  of  construct 
ing  batteries,  forts,  and  breastworks,  and  laying 
out  camps,  with  days  of  comparative  peace  and 
comfort  notwithstanding  several  alarms  show 
ing  the  possibility  of  more  arduous  service. 

The  Confederate  Army  which  had  been  sent 
under  General  Early  into  the  Shenandoah  Val 
ley  to  create  a  diversion  in  that  quarter,  had 
unexpectedly  appeared  on  the  Potomac  in  a 

[473 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

sudden  dash  upon  Washington,  then  defended 
chiefly  by  raw  levies.  Part  of  the  Sixth  Corps 
had  been  detached  from  Grant's  army  and  sent 
to  protect  the  capital  a  few  days  before ;  now  the 
rest  of  the  corps,  including  the  Second  Connec 
ticut,  was  hurried  north  and  reached  Washing 
ton  just  in  time  to  defeat  Early' s  purpose.  He 
had  planned  to  storm  the  city  on  the  12th, 
and  with  good  prospects  of  success;  it  was  on 
that  very  day  at  an  early  hour,  that  the  rein 
forcing  troops  arrived.  They  were  hurried 
through  the  city  to  the  threatened  point,  and  the 
enemy,  seeing  the  well-known  corps  badge  con 
fronting  them  at  Fort  Stevens,  and  recognizing 
that  the  opportunity  was  gone,  promptly  re 
treated,  after  an  engagement  in  which  the 
Second  Connecticut  took  no  active  part.  This 
occasion  was  notable  by  reason  of  the  fact  that 
for  the  only  time  during  the  war  President  Lin 
coln  was  under  fire,  as  he  watched  the  progress 
of  affairs  from  the  parapet  of  Fort  Stevens. 

The  pursuit  which  began  at  once  entailed 
some  hard  marching,  but  the  enemy  could  not 

U81 


A  SKETCH 

be  brought  to  a  stand.  It  continued  for  several 
days  until  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah  was 
reached,  when  Early,  as  was  supposed,  having 
hurried  back  to  join  Lee  at  Petersburg,  the 
Sixth  Corps  was  marched  again  swiftly  to  the 
capital.  Here  it  developed  that  the  authorities 
had  decided  to  keep  part  of  the  forces  sent  for 
their  protection,  to  man  the  defences,  since 
Early's  attempt  had  come  so  dangerously  near 
succeeding,  and  the  Second  Connecticut  was 
chosen  to  remain.  On  July  2^th  it  was  moved 
into  the  same  forts  it  had  occupied  when  called 
to  the  front  two  months  before,  and  here  it 
might  have  remained  through  the  rest  of  its 
term  of  service,  if  Early  had,  as  was  presumed, 
gone  back  to  join  Lee  at  Petersburg.  But 
it  was  learned  now  that  he  had  faced  about 
when  the  chase  ceased  and  was  again  threaten 
ing  a  northward  move.  The  Sixth  Corps  was 
therefore  ordered  against  his  force  once 
more,  the  Second  Connecticut  going  from 
the  anticipated  comforts  of  its  prospective 
garrison  duty  with  anything  but  satisfaction. 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

"The  men  who  had  rolled  into  those  cosy  bunks 
with  the  declared  intention  of  'sleeping  a  week 
steady/  were  on  their  cursing  way  through  Ten- 
allytown  again  in  twenty-four  hours,  marching 
with  accelerated  pace  toward  Frederick  to  over 
take  the  brigade  of  the  red  cross,  to  which  they 
had  so  lately  bidden  an  everlasting  adieu.  Oh, 
bitter  cup!" 

After  much  marching  and  counter  marching 
they  found  themselves  on  August  6th  at  Hall- 
town  in  the  Valley.  For  more  than  a  month  the 
army,  now  placed  under  the  command  of  Gen 
eral  Sheridan,  was  occupied  in  organizing  and 
maneuvering  for  the  projected  campaign, 
which  the  presence  of  the  hostile  force  in  that 
important  quarter  necessitated. 

Though  on  a  much  smaller  scale  than  the  oper 
ations  in  which  the  regiment  had  borne  a  part 
since  it  had  been  in  active  service,  the  impend 
ing  action  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  was  recog 
nized  as  being  of  great  importance.  Grant's 
official  report,  speaking  on  this  point,  says :  "De 
feat  to  us  would  lay  open  to  the  enemy  the 


A  SKETCH 

states  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  for  long 
distances  before  another  army  could  be  inter 
posed  to  check  him/'  and  aside  from  the  military 
aspect  of  the  matter,  the  political  campaign 
then  agitating  the  loyal  states  made  the  result 
of  the  struggle  here  of  profound  influence. 

The  campaign's  activities  began  with  the  bat 
tle  of  the  Opequan,  or,  as  it  is  perhaps  more 
often  designated,  of  Winchester.  General 
Sheridan  took  advantage  of  an  opportunity  for 
which  he  had  been  patiently  waiting  by  moving 
his  forces  to  the  attack  at  daylight  on  the  morn 
ing  of  September  iQth,  and  before  noon  the  en 
gagement  was  fierce  and  general,  both  assault 
and  defence  being  made  with  equal  spirit  and 
determination;  that  part  of  the  Sixth  Corps 
which  comprised  the  Second  Connecticut,  how 
ever,  had  taken  small  part  in  it,  being  held  in 
reserve. 

It  was  about  midday  that  in  a  counter  charge 
against  the  Union  center,  the  enemy  found  a 
weak  point  at  the  junction  of  the  Sixth  Corps 
with  the  Nineteenth,  of  which  they  quickly  took 

[50 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

advantage,  breaking  the  line  and  driving  back 
the  troops  on  the  flanks  of  both  corps  in  great 
disorder.  Their  successful  advance  and  the 
flight  of  the  opposing  forces  gave  such  assur 
ances  of  victory  that  more  than  one  Confederate 
writer  says  that  at  this  point  the  battle  which 
had  raged  since  daylight  was  won.  Jefferson 
Davis  himself  wrote,  years  after,  of  the  charge : 
"This  affair  occurred  about  1 1  A.M.,  and  a  splen 
did  victory  had  been  gained," — a  judgment 
which  lacked  finality.  In  fact,  had  the  separa 
tion  of  the  wings  of  Sheridan's  army  been  ac 
complished,  as  it  was  threatened,  the  result 
would  have  been  utter  disaster;  just  now,  how 
ever,  Upton's  brigade,  of  which  the  Second 
Connecticut  formed  a  large  part,  was  brought 
up  to  the  point  of  danger.  The  charge  was 
checked,  the  enemy  in  turn  driven  back,  and  the 
Union  line  re-established. 

In  the  regimental  history  it  is  related  that  the 
brigade  was  pushed  forward  gradually,  "halted 
on  a  spot  where  the  ground  was  depressed 
enough  to  afford  a  little  protection,  and 


A  SKETCH 

only  a  little, — for  several  men  were  hit  while 
lying  there,  as  well  as  others,  while  get 
ting  there.  In  three  minutes  the  regiment 
again  advanced,  passed  over  a  knoll,  lost  sev 
eral  more  men,  and  halted  in  another  hollow 
spot,  similar  to  the  first.  The  enemy's  advance 
had  now  been  pushed  well  back,  and  here  a  stay 
was  made  of  perhaps  two  hours.  Colonel  Mac 
kenzie  rode  slowly  back  and  forth  along  the  rise 
of  ground  in  front  of  this  position  in  a  very 
reckless  manner,  in  plain  sight  and  easy  range 
of  the  enemy,  who  kept  up  a  fire  from  a  piece  of 
woods  in  front,  which  elicited  from  him  the  re 
mark,  T  guess  those  fellows  will  get  tired  of 
firing  at  me  by  and  by.'  But  the  ground  where 
the  regiment  lay  was  very  slightly  depressed, 
and  although  the  shots  missed  Mackenzie  they 
killed  and  wounded  a  large  number  of  both 
officers  and  men  behind  him. 

About  three  o'clock,  an  advance  of  the  whole 
line  having  been  ordered  by  Sheridan,  the  regi 
ment  charged  across  the  field,  Mackenzie  riding 
some  ten  rods  ahead,  holding  his  hat  aloft  on 

C533 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

the  point  of  his  saber.  The  distance  to  the 
woods  was  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  was 
traversed  under  a  fire  that  carried  off  its  victims 
at  nearly  every  step.  The  enemy  abandoned 
the  woods,  however,  as  the  regiment  approached. 
After  a  short  halt  it  again  advanced  to  a  rail 
fence  which  ran  along  the  side  of  an  extensive 
field.  Here,  for  the  first  time  during  the  whole 
of  this  bloody  day,  did  the  regiment  have  orders 
to  fire,  and  for  ten  minutes  they  had  the  privi 
lege  of  pouring  an  effective  fire  into  the  rebels, 
who  were  thick  in  front.  Then  a  flank  move 
ment  was  made  along  the  fence  to  the  right,  fol 
lowed  by  a  direct  advance  of  forty  rods  into  the 
field.  Here  was  the  deadliest  spot  of  the  day. 
The  enemy's  artillery,  on  a  rise  of  ground  in 
front,  plowed  the  field  with  canister  and  shells, 
and  tore  the  ranks  in  a  frightful  manner.  Major 
Rice  was  struck  by  a  shell,  his  left  arm  torn  off, 
and  his  body  cut  almost  asunder.  Major  Skin 
ner  was  struck  on  the  top  of  the  head  by  a  shell, 
knocked  nearly  a  rod  with  his  face  to  the  earth, 
and  was  carried  to  the  rear  insensible.  General 

C543 


A  SKETCH 

Upton  had  a  good  quarter  pound  of  flesh  taken 
out  of  his  thigh  by  a  shell.  Colonel  Mackenzie's 
horse  was  cut  in  two  by  a  solid  shot  which  just 
grazed  the  rider's  leg  and  let  him  down  to  the 
ground  very  abruptly.  Several  other  officers  were 
also  struck;  and  from  these  instances  as  well  as 
from  the  appended  list  of  casualties  some  idea 
may  be  gained  of  the  havoc  among  the  enlisted 
men  at  this  point.  Although  the  regiment  had 
been  under  fire  and  losing  continually  from  the 
middle  of  the  afternoon,  until  it  was  now  almost 
sunset,  yet  the  losses  during  ten  minutes  in  this 
last  field  were  probably  equal  to  those  of  all  the 
rest  of  the  day.  It  was  doubtless  the  spot  re 
ferred  to  by  the  rebel  historian,  Pollard,  when 
he  says,  'Early' s  artillery  was  fought  to  the 
muzzle  of  the  guns.'  Mackenzie  gave  the  order 
to  move  by  the  left  flank  and  a  start  was  made, 
but  there  was  no  enduring  such  a  fire,  and  the 
men  ran  back  and  lay  down.  Another  attempt 
was  soon  made,  and  after  passing  a  large  oak 
tree  a  sheltered  position  was  secured.  The  next 
move  was  directly  into  the  enemy's  breastwork. 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

They  had  just  been  driven  from  it  by  a  cavalry 
charge  from  the  right,  and  were  in  full  retreat 
through  the  streets  of  Winchester,  and  some  of 
their  abandoned  artillery  which  had  done  us  so 
much  damage  stood  yet  in  position,  hissing  hot 
with  action,  with  their  miserable  rac-a-bone 
horses  attached.  The  brigade,  numbering  less 
than  half  the  muskets  it  had  in  the  morning,  was 
now  got  into  shape,  and  after  marching  to  a 
field  in  the  eastern  edge  of  the  city,  bivouacked 
for  the  night,  while  the  pursuit  rolled  miles 
away  up  the  valley  pike."  Night  alone,  wrote 
General  Wesley  Merritt,  saved  Early5  s  army 
from  capture. 

To  the  losses  of  the  day  the  Second  Con 
necticut  contributed  forty-two  killed  and  one 
hundred  and  eight  wounded,  the  proportion  of 
officers  being  very  large. 

Unlike  their  previous  severe  engagement  at 
Cold  Harbor,  the  regiment  had  the  thrilling 
consciousness  of  complete  victory  to  hearten 
them  after  this  battle,  and,  later,  when  the  full 
history  of  the  day  was  learned,  the  realization 

[56H 


A  SKETCH 

that  they  had  played  a  part  of  no  little  import 
ance  in  attaining  it. 

The  moment  when  they  were  brought  into 
action  was  a  critical  one.  General  Sheridan,  in 
his  report  summing  up  the  operations  of  the 
campaign,  said:  "At  Winchester  for  a  moment 
the  contest  was  uncertain,  but  the  gallant  at 
tack  of  General  Upton's  brigade  of  the  Sixth 
Corps  restored  the  line  of  battle,"  and  of  this 
brigade  the  Second  Connecticut  formed  fully 
half.  Upton's  report  gave  high  praise  to  Colo 
nel  Mackenzie,  and  said:  "His  regiment  on  the 
right  initiated  nearly  every  movement  of  the 
division,  and  behaved  with  great  steadiness  and 
gallantry." 

The  victory  itself,  with  the  sequel  which  fol 
lowed  so  promptly  three  days  later,  had  an  im 
portance  far  beyond  its  purely  military  value, 
through  its  marked  effects  upon  public  sentiment 
throughout  the  country;  it  brought  to  one  side 
jubilant  satisfaction,  and  gave  a  corresponding 
depression  to  the  other,  and  it  elevated  Sheri 
dan  at  once  to  that  high  place  in  popular  affec- 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

tion  which  he  always  afterwards  held.  That  it 
was  "the  turning-point  of  the  fortunes  of  the 
war  in  Virginia,"  was  the  verdict  of  a  Confed 
erate  officer  of  high  rank,  and  Nicolay  and  Hay 
in  the  "Life  of  Lincoln"  describe  it  as  "one  of 
the  most  important  of  the  war." 

As  for  the  Litchfield  County  regiment,  among 
its  many  proud  memories,  none  surely  holds  a 
higher  place  than  that  of  the  worthy  and  effec 
tive  part  it  took  in  this  day's  work,  forming,  as 
it  did,  so  large  a  part  of  the  brigade  which,  in 
the  words  of  General  Upton's  biographer, turned 
possible  defeat  into  certain  victory. 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  method  of  operation 
could  hardly  be  held  as  dilatory.  It  would 
doubtless  have  commended  itself  more  highly 
to  his  men  if  it  had  been  somewhat  more  so, 
when  at  daylight  on  the  morning  after  the 
splendid  success  of  September  iQth  they  were 
ordered  in  pursuit  of  Early's  army. 

The  Confederate  forces  had  taken  position 
on  Fisher's  Hill,  considered  the  Gibraltar  of  the 

[58] 


A  SKETCH 

Valley,  and  according  to  Sheridan,  almost  im 
pregnable  to  a  direct  assault.  Two  days  were 
occupied  in  bringing  up  troops  and  making  dis 
positions  for  the  attack.  The  Second  Con 
necticut  reached  its  assigned  position  on  the 
2 1st  near  midnight,  and  found  itself  "on  the 
very  top  of  a  hill  fully  as  high  as  Fisher's  Hill, 
and  separated  from  it  by  Tumbling  River.  The 
enemy's  stronghold  was  on  the  top  of  the  oppo 
site  hill  directly  across  the  stream." 

On  the  22nd  more  or  less  skirmishing  took 
place  all  day.  A  force  had  been  sent  round  the 
enemy's  left  flank;  the  attack  it  delivered  late 
in  the  afternoon  was  a  complete  surprise  to 
Early' s  men,  and  an  advance  by  the  whole 
Union  line  quickly  routed  them. 

To  make  this  charge  the  regiment  moved 
down  the  steep  hill,  waded  the  stream,  and 
moved  up  the  rocky  front  of  the  rebel  Gibraltar. 
How  they  got  up  there  is  a  mystery, — for  the 
ascent  of  that  rocky  declivity  would  now  seem 
an  impossibility  to  an  unburdened  traveller, 
even  though  there  were  no  deadly  enemy  at  the 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

top.  But  up  they  went,  clinging  to  rocks  and 
bushes.  The  main  rebel  breastwork,  which  they 
were  so  confident  of  holding,  was  about  fifteen 
rods  from  the  top  of  the  bluff,  with  brush  piled 
in  front  of  it.  Just  as  the  top  was  reached  the 
Eighth  Corps  struck  the  enemy  on  the  right,  and 
their  flight  was  disordered  and  precipitate.  The 
Second  Connecticut  was  the  first  regiment  that 
reached  and  planted  colors  on  the  works  from 
the  direct  front. 

They  were  marching  in  pursuit  all  that  night 
and  for  three  succeeding  days,  until  the  chase 
was  seen  to  be  hopeless  and  the  army  faced 
northward  again.  Four  killed  and  nineteen 
wounded  were  added  at  Fisher's  Hill  to  the 
growing  record  of  the  Second  Connecticut's 
losses. 


C60] 


Colonel  Kellogg 


'UCH  complete  failure  in  their  cam 
paign  had,  it  was  now  believed, 
eliminated  the  enemy  in  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley.  The  Sixth  Corps 
was  accordingly  ordered  back  to 
Grant's  army  before  Petersburg  after  a  few 
days  of  rest,  and  was  moving  toward  Washing 
ton  on  its  way  when  there  came  a  sudden  change 
of  orders. 

Early,  reinforced  and  once  more  ready,  was 
again  in  the  works  he  had  been  driven  from  at 
Fisher's  Hill.  The  corps,  recalled  to  join 
the  forces  of  Sheridan,  went  into  camp  along 
the  north  bank  of  Cedar  Creek  on  October  14th, 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

and  here  there  soon  took  place  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  and  dramatic  conflicts  of  the  war. 

"For  the  next  few  days,"  the  history  of  the 
regiment  states,  "there  was  much  quiet  and  a 
good  deal  of  speculation  among  the  troops  as  to 
what  would  be  the  next  shift  of  the  scenes.  The 
enemy  was  close  in  front,  just  as  he  had  been 
for  weeks  preceding  the  battle  of  Winchester, 
but  this  attitude  which  might  once  have  been 
called  defiance,  now  seemed  to  be  mere  impu 
dence, — and  it  was  the  general  opinion  that 
Early  did  not  wish  or  intend  to  fight  again,  but 
that  he  was  to  be  kept  there  as  a  standing  threat 
in  order  to  prevent  Sheridan's  army  from  re 
turning  to  Grant.  And  yet  there  was  something 
mysterious  in  his  conduct.  He  was  known  to 
be  receiving  reinforcements,  and  his  signal  flags 
on  Three-top  Mountain  (just  south  of  Fisher's 
Hill)  were  continually  in  motion.  From  the 
top  of  Massanutton  Mountain  his  vedettes 
could  look  down  upon  the  whole  Union  army, 
as  one  can  look  down  upon  New  Haven  from 
East  Rock,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  exact 

C623 


A  SKETCH 

location  of  every  camp,  and  the  position  of 
every  gun  and  every  picket  post  were  thor 
oughly  known  to  him.  Nevertheless,  it  seemed 
the  most  improbable  thing  in  the  world  that  he 
could  be  meditating  either  an  open  attack  or  a 
surprise.  The  position  was  strong,  the  creek 
and  its  crossings  in  possession  of  our  pickets 
both  along  the  front  and  well  out  on  either 
flank."  But  Early  himself,  being  in  difficulties 
his  enemy  knew  nothing  of,  says,  "I  was  com 
pelled  to  move  back  for  want  of  provisions  and 
forage,  or  attack  the  enemy  in  his  position  with 
the  hope  of  driving  him  from  it,  and  I  deter 
mined  to  attack." 

His  plan  was,  like  his  adversary's  at  the  last 
encounter,  a  surprise  around  the  left  flank  with 
a  feint  on  the  right,  and  it  was  carried  out  on 
the  morning  of  October  igth  with  complete  suc 
cess.  General  Sheridan  had  been  called  to 
Washington  a  few  days  before,  as  no  active 
operations  seemed  imminent,  and  the  army  lay 
feeling  quite  secure. 

Good  fortune  attended  the  attacking  forces, 
[63] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

and  the  surprise  was  perfect.  General  Merritt 
writes :  "Crook's  (Eighth  Corps)  camp  and  after 
wards  Emory's  (Nineteenth  Corps)  were  at 
tacked  in  flank  and  rear,  and  the  men  and  offi 
cers  driven  from  their  beds,  many  of  them  not 
having  time  to  hurry  into  their  clothes,  except 
as  they  retreated,  half  awake  and  terror-stricken 
from  the  overpowering  numbers  of  the  enemy. 
Their  own  artillery  in  conjunction  with  that  of 
the  enemy,  was  turned  on  them,  and  long  before 
it  was  light  enough  for  their  eyes,  unaccus 
tomed  to  the  dim  light,  to  distinguish  friend 
from  foe,  they  were  hurrying  to  our  right  and 
rear  intent  only  on  their  safety.  Wright's 
(Sixth  Corps)  infantry,  which  was  farther  re 
moved  from  the  point  of  attack,  fared  somewhat 
better,  but  did  not  offer  more  than  a  spasmodic 
resistance."  Nevertheless,  they  made  Early 
"pay  dearly  for  every  foot  gained  and  finally 
brought  him  to  a  stand,"  as  Nicolay  and  Hay 
record. 

The  history  of  the  Second  Connecticut  tells 
the  story  of  the  day  as  follows:  "Most  of  the 


A  SKETCH 

regiment  were  up  next  morning  long  before 
Reveille  and  many  had  begun  to  cook  their 
coffee  on  account  of  that  ominous  popping  and 
cracking  which  had  been  going  on  for  half  an 
hour  off  to  the  right.  They  did  not  exactly  sup 
pose  it  meant  anything,  but  they  had  learned 
wisdom  by  many  a  sudden  march  on  an  empty 
stomach  and  did  not  propose  to  be  caught  nap 
ping.  The  clatter  on  the  right  increased.  It 
began  to  be  the  wonder  why  no  orders  came. 
But  suddenly  every  man  seemed  to  lose  interest 
in  the  right,  and  turned  his  inquiring  eyes  and 
ears  toward  the  left.  Rapid  volleys  and  a 
vague  tumult  told  that  there  was  trouble  there. 
Tall  in!'  said  Mackenzie.  The  brigade  moved 
briskly  off  toward  the  east,  crossing  the  track  of 
other  troops  and  batteries  of  artillery  which 
were  hurriedly  swinging  into  position,  while 
ambulances,  orderlies,  staff  officers,  camp  fol 
lowers,  pack  horses,  cavalrymen,  sutler's  wagons, 
hospital  wagons,  and  six-mule  teams  of  every 
description  came  trundling  and  galloping  pell 
mell  toward  the  right  and  rear  and  making  off 

[653 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

toward  Winchester.  It  was  not  a  hundred  rods 
from  our  own  camp  to  the  place  where  we  went 
into  position  on  a  road  running  north.  General 
Wright,  the  temporary  commander  of  the  army, 
bareheaded,  and  with  blood  trickling  from  his 
beard,  sat  on  his  horse  near  by,  as  if  bewildered 
or  in  a  brown  study.  The  ground  was  cleared 
in  front  of  the  road  and  sloped  off  some  thirty 
rods  to  a  stream,  on  the  opposite  side  of  which  it 
rose  for  about  an  equal  distance  to  a  piece  of 
woods  in  which  the  advance  rebel  line  had  al 
ready  taken  position.  The  newly  risen  sun, 
huge  and  bloody,  was  on  their  side  in  more 
senses  than  one.  Our  line  faced  directly  to  the 
east  and  we  could  see  nothing  but  that  enormous 
disk,  rising  out  of  the  fog,  while  they  could  see 
every  man  in  our  line  and  could  take  good  aim. 
The  battalion  lay  down,  and  part  of  the  men 
began  to  fire,  but  the  shape  of  the  ground  af 
forded  little  protection  and  large  numbers  were 
killed  and  wounded.  Four  fifths  of  our  loss  for 
the  entire  day  occurred  during  the  time  we  lay 
here, — which  could  not  have  been  over  five  min- 

[66] 


A  SKETCH 

utes, — by  the  end  of  which  time  the  Second 
Connecticut  found  itself  in  an  isolated  position 
not  unlike  that  at  Cold  Harbor.  The  fog  had 
now  thinned  away  somewhat  and  a  firm  rebel 
line  with  colors  full  high  advanced  came  rolling 
over  the  knoll  just  in  front  of  our  left  not  more 
than  three  hundred  yards  distant.  'Rise  up, — 
Retreat,'  said  Mackenzie, — and  the  battalion 
began  to  move  back. 

For  a  little  distance  the  retreat  was  made  in 
very  good  order,  but  it  soon  degenerated  into  a 
rout.  Men  from  a  score  of  regiments  were 
mixed  up  in  flight,  and  the  whole  corps  was 
scattered  over  acres  and  acres  with  no  more  or 
ganization  than  a  herd  of  buffaloes.  Some  of 
the  wounded  were  carried  for  a  distance  by  their 
comrades,  who  were  at  length  compelled  to 
leave  them  to  their  fate  in  order  to  escape  being 
shot.  About  a  mile  from  the  place  where  the 
retreat  commenced  there  was  a  road  running 
directly  across  the  valley.  Here  the  troops  were 
rallied  and  a  slight  defence  of  rails  thrown  up. 
The  regimental  and  brigade  flags  were  set  up  as 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

beacons  to  direct  each  man  how  to  steer  through 
the  mob  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  there  was  an 
effective  line  of  battle  established.  A  few 
round  shot  ricochetted  overhead,  making  about 
an  eighth  of  a  mile  at  a  jump,  and  a  few  grape 
were  dropped  into  a  ditch  just  behind  our  line, 
quickly  clearing  out  some  soldiers  who  had 
crawled  in  there,  but  this  was  the  extent  of  the 
pursuit.  The  whole  brigade  (and  a  very  small 
brigade  it  was)  was  deployed  as  skirmishers 
under  Colonel  Olcott  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-first  New  York.  Three  lines  of  skir 
mishers  were  formed  and  each  in  turn  consti 
tuted  the  first  line  while  the  other  two  passed 
through  and  halted,  and  so  the  retreat  was  con 
tinued  for  about  three  miles  until  a  halt  was 
made  upon  high  ground,  from  which  we  could 
plainly  see  the  Johnnies  sauntering  around  on 
the  very  ground  where  we  had  slept." 

Once  more  could  Early  claim  the  credit  of  a 
victory  of  which  at  night  he  was  to  find  himself 
again  deprived.  Sheridan's  famous  ride,  his 
meeting  and  turning  of  the  tide  of  fugitives,  is 

C68] 


A  SKETCH 

the  feature  of  the  day's  occurrences  which  will 
always  live  in  the  popular  memory.  It  is  a  sig 
nificant  hint  of  the  scale  of  such  a  battlefield 
to  know  that  the  men  of  the  Second  Connecticut 
had  no  visual  perception  of  his  presence  that 
day,  though  they  heard  the  cheering  occasioned 
by  his  appearance  in  other  parts  of  the  scene, 
and  in  his  report  there  is  mention  of  a  meet 
ing  with  Colonel  Mackenzie,  whom  he  tried 
to  persuade  to  go  to  the  rear  on  account  of  his 
wounds. 

The  Confederate  belief  in  their  victory  was 
not  unreasonable,  but  it  was  now  to  suffer  an 
astonishing  upset.  Weary  and  demoralized 
with  success,  they  were  entirely  unprepared  for 
the  vigor  of  their  opponents,  who  after  repul 
sing  their  last  assault,  quickly  reformed  the  lines 
and  prepared  for  a  general  advance.  Sheridan 
writes:  "This  attack  was  brilliantly  made,  and 
as  the  enemy  was  protected  by  rail  breastworks 
and  at  some  portions  of  his  line  by  stone  fences, 
his  resistance  was  very  determined." 

The  history  of  the  Second  Connecticut  gives 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

a  detailed  account  of  its  movement,  first  against 
a  stone  wall  in  front  which  after  some  opposi 
tion  was  abandoned  by  the  enemy,  who  then 
"attempted  to  rally  behind  another  fence  a  little 
further  back,  but  after  a  moment  or  two  gave  it 
up  and  'retired.'  Not  only  in  front  of  our  regi 
ment,  but  all  along  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
both  to  the  right  and  left,  were  they  flying  over 
the  uneven  country  in  precisely  the  same  kind 
of  disorder  that  we  had  exhibited  in  the  morn 
ing.  The  shouts  and  screams  of  victory  mingled 
with  the  roar  of  the  firing,  and  never  was  heard 
cso  musical  a  discord,  such  sweet  thunder.'  The 
sight  of  so  many  rebel  heels  made  it  a  very  easy 
thing  to  be  brave,  and  the  Union  troops  pressed 
on,  utterly  regardless  of  the  grape  and  canister 
which  to  the  last  moment  the  enemy  flung  be 
hind  him.  It  would  not  have  been  well  for  them 
to  have  fired  too  much  if  they  had  had  ever  so 
good  a  chance,  for  they  would  have  been  no 
more  likely  to  hit  our  men  than  their  own,  who 
were  our  prisoners  and  scattered  in  squads  of 
twenty,  squads  of  ten,  and  squads  of  one,  all 


A  SKETCH 

over  the  vast  field.  At  one  time  they  made  a 
determined  stand  along  a  ridge  in  front  of  our 
brigade.  A  breastwork  of  rails  was  thrown  to 
gether,  colors  planted,  a  nucleus  made,  and 
both  flanks  grew  longer  and  longer  with  won 
derful  rapidity.  It  was  evident  that  they  were 
driving  back  their  men  to  this  line  without  re 
gard  to  regiment  or  organization  of  any  kind. 
This  could  be  plainly  seen  from  the  adjacent 
and  similar  ridge  over  which  we  were  moving, — 
the  pursuers  being  in  quite  as  much  disorder  (so 
far  as  organizations  were  concerned)  as  the  pur 
sued.  That  growing  line  began  to  look  ugly 
and  somewhat  quenched  the  ardor  of  the  chase. 
It  began  to  be  a  question  in  many  minds  whether 
it  would  not  be  a  point  of  wisdom  'to  survey  the 
vantage  of  the  ground'  before  getting  much 
further.  But  just  as  we  descended  into  the  in 
tervening  hollow,  a  body  of  cavalry,  not  large 
but  compact,  was  seen  scouring  along  the  fields 
to  our  right  and  front  like  a  whirlwind  directly 
toward  the  left  flank  of  that  formidable  line  on 
the  hill.  When  we  reached  the  top  there  was  no 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

enemy  there !  They  had  moved  on  and  the  cav 
alry  after  them. 

Thus  the  chase  was  continued,  from  posi 
tion  to  position,  for  miles  and  miles,  for  hours 
and  hours,  until  darkness  closed  in  and  every 
regiment  went  into  camp  on  the  identical 
ground  it  had  left  in  such  haste  in  the  morning. 
Every  man  tied  his  shelter  tent  to  the  very  same 
old  stakes,  and  in  half  an  hour  coffee  was  boil 
ing  and  salt  pork  sputtering  over  thousands  of 
camp  fires.  Civil  life  may  furnish  better  fare 
than  the  army  at  Cedar  Creek  had  that  night, 
but  not  better  appetites ;  for  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  many  had  gone  into  the  fight  directly 
from  their  beds  and  had  eaten  nothing  for 
twenty-four  hours. 

Men  from  every  company  started  out  the  first 
thing  after  reaching  camp  to  look  for  our  dead 
and  wounded,  many  of  whom  lay  not  fifty  rods 
off.  The  slightly  wounded  who  had  not  got 
away  had  been  taken  prisoners  and  sent  at  once 
toward  Richmond — while  the  severely  wounded 
had  lain  all  day  on  the  ground  near  where 


A  SKETCH 

they  were  hit  while  the  tide  of  battle  ebbed 
and  flowed  over  them.  Some  of  the  mortally 
wounded  were  just  able  to  greet  their  re 
turning  comrades,  hear  the  news  of  victory, 
and  send  a  last  message  to  their  friends  be 
fore  expiring.  Corporal  Charles  M.  Burr  was 
shot  above  the  ankle  just  after  the  battalion 
had  risen  up  and  started  to  retreat.  Both 
bones  of  his  leg  were  shattered  and  he  had 
to  be  left.  In  a  few  minutes  the  rebel  battalion 
which  I  have  already  mentioned  came  directly 
over  him  in  pursuit,  and  was  soon  out  of  his 
sight.  Then  being  alone  for  a  short  time  he 
pulled  off  the  boot  from  his  sound  leg,  put  his 
watch  and  money  into  it  and  put  it  on  again. 
Next  a  merciful  rebel  lieutenant  came  and  tied 
a  handkerchief  around  his  leg,  stanching  the 
blood.  Next  came  the  noble  army  of  stragglers 
and  bummers  with  the  question,  'Hello,  Yank, 
have  you  got  any  Yankee  notions  about  you?' 
and  at  the  same  time  thrusting  their  hands  into 
every  pocket.  They  captured  a  little  money 
and  small  traps,  but  seeing  one  boot  was  spoiled 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

they  did  not  meddle  with  the  other.  Next  came 
wagons,  picking  up  muskets  and  accoutrements 
which  lay  thick  all  over  the  ground.  Then  came 
ambulances  and  picked  up  the  rebel  wounded 
but  left  ours.  Then  came  a  citizen  of  the  Con 
federacy  asking  many  questions,  and  then  came 
three  boys  who  gave  him  water.  And  thus  the 
day  wore  along  until  the  middle  of  the  after 
noon  when  the  tide  of  travel  began  to  turn. 
The  noble  army  of  stragglers  and  bummers  led 
the  advance — then  the  roar  of  battle  grew 
nearer  and  louder  and  more  general,  then 
came  galloping  officers  and  all  kinds  of  wagons, 
then  a  brass  twelve-pounder  swung  round  close 
to  him,  unlimbered,  fired  one  shot,  and  whipped 
off  again — then  came  the  routed  infantry,  artil 
lery,  and  cavalry,  all  mixed  together,  all  on  a 
full  run,  and  strewing  the  ground  with  muskets 
and  equipments.  Then  came  the  shouting 
'boys  in  blue,'  and  in  a  few  minutes  Pat 
Birmingham  came  up  and  said:  'Well, 
Charley,  I  'm  glad  to  find  you  alive.  I  did  n't 
expect  it.  We  're  back  again  in  the  old 

C743 


A  SKETCH 

camp,  and  the  Johnnies  are  whipped  all  to 
pieces.3  : 

The  victory  was  as  complete  and  satisfying 
as  it  was  spectacular;  the  enemy  was  at  last  so 
thoroughly  beaten  that  a  dangerous  attitude 
could  not  be  taken  again.  It  was  a  fitting  close 
for  Sheridan's  famous  campaign  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley. 

To  the  Second  Connecticut  the  day  at  Cedar 
Creek  brought  losses  nearly  as  heavy  as  were 
suffered  at  Winchester  just  a  month  before: 
thirty-eight  killed,  ninety-six  wounded,  and 
two  missing,  besides  a  large  number  made  pris 
oners, — an  entire  company  having  been  cap 
tured  early  in  the  morning  while  on  picket, — of 
whom  eleven  died  in  captivity.  These  losses 
were  in  fact  proportionately  even  larger  than 
those  met  with  at  Cold  Harbor,  as  the  hard 
service  of  the  preceding  months  had  reduced 
the  regiment's  effective  strength  to  about 
twenty-five  officers  and  seven  hundred  men 
present  for  duty. 


ENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  report  on  the 
Shenandoah  campaign  gave  high 
praise  to  Colonel  Mackenzie,  who, 
as  a  result  of  his  conduct,  received 
a  promotion  and  was  commis 
sioned  brigadier-general  in  December.  His  dis 
ability  from  the  two  wounds  received  at  Cedar 
Creek,  however,  necessitated  his  relinquishing 
the  command  of  the  regiment  immediately  after 
that  engagement,  and  this  devolved  upon  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  James  Hubbard ;  to  him  in  due 
course  came  the  colonel's  commission,  and  he 
led  the  regiment  throughout  the  rest  of  its 
career. 


Colonel  Mackenzie 


A  SKETCH 

Colonel  Hubbard,  though  born  in  Salisbury, 
had  lived  in  the  West  before  the  war,  and  first 
saw  service  with  an  Illinois  regiment.  Return 
ing  to  Connecticut,  he  assisted  in  raising  a  com 
pany  for  the  Nineteenth,  and  was  mustered  in 
as  its  captain.  He  was  steadily  promoted  until 
the  death  of  Colonel  Kellogg  brought  him  natu 
rally  to  the  command  of  the  regiment;  but,  as 
has  been  said,  his  own  modest  estimate  of  his 
qualifications  for  this  responsibility  caused  him 
to  decline  the  appointment.  When  it  came  to 
him  a  second  time  he  accepted,  and  proved  by 
his  subsequent  handling  of  the  regiment  a 
worthy  successor  to  the  remarkably  able  soldiers 
under  whom  he  had  served,  winning  the  brevet 
rank  of  brigadier-general  in  the  final  campaigns. 
His  ambition  was,  a  comrade  wrote,  to  do  his 
full  duty  without  a  thought  for  personal  glory; 
and  he  enjoyed  in  a  high  degree  the  respect 
and  affection  of  his  command.  He  died  in 
Washington,  where  he  lived  for  many 
years,  on  December  21,  1886,  and  was  buried 
in  Winsted. 

[77] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

THE  brilliant  victories  in  which  the  Second 
Artillery  had  borne  so  worthy  a  part,  and  the 
re-election  of  President  Lincoln  in  November 
( 1864) ,  put  an  end  to  all  anxieties  as  to  danger 
in  the  quarter  of  the  Shenandoah,  which  before 
Sheridan's  campaign  had  been  a  region  of  fatal 
mischance  to  the  national  cause  from  the  begin 
ning  of  the  war.  As  a  consequence  the  Sixth 
Corps  was  once  more  ordered  to  rejoin  Grant's 
army,  and  the  regiment  left  the  historic  valley 
on  December  1st,  arriving  on  the  ^th  before 
Petersburg,  where  it  was  assigned  a  position 
near  the  place  of  its  skirmish  on  June  22nd. 

"Then  it  was  unbroken  forest,"  says  its  his 
tory;  "now,  hundreds  of  acres  were  cleared,  and 
dotted  with  camps.  A  corduroy  road  ran  by, 
and  a  telegraph,  and  Grant's  railroad.  No 
other  such  railroad  was  ever  seen  before,  or  ever 
will  be  again.  It  was  laid  right  on  top  of  the 
ground,  without  any  attempt  at  grading,  and 
you  might  see  the  engine  and  rear  car  of  a  long 
train,  while  the  middle  of  the  train  would  be  in 
a  valley,  completely  out  of  sight.  Having 


A  SKETCH 

reached  Parke  Station,  we  moved  to  a  camp  near 
Battery  Number  Twenty-seven,  and  went  into 
the  snug  and  elegant  little  log  houses  just 
vacated  by  the  Ninety-fourth  New  York. 
This  was  a  new  kind  of  situation  for  the  'Second 
Heavies.3  The  idea  of  being  behind  perma 
nent  and  powerful  breastworks,  defended  by 
abatis,  ditches,  and  what  not,  with  approaches 
so  difficult  that  ten  men  could  hold  five  hundred 
at  bay,  was  so  novel,  that  the  men  actually  felt 
as  if  there  must  be  some  mistake,  and  that  they 
had  got  into  the  wrong  place." 

FOR  two  months  no  fighting  fell  to  the  regi 
ment's  lot,  for  though  the  Union  commanders 
and  armies  were  ready  and  eager  to  make  an 
end  of  the  war  as  soon  as  possible,  little  could 
be  done  during  the  winter.  Though  this  inac 
tivity  brought  perhaps  some  relief  from  the 
rigors  of  army  life,  the  men  had  numerous  re 
minders  that  they  were  still  in  active  service. 
One  of  the  chief  events  of  this  season  the  his 
tory  of  the  regiment  describes  as  follows:  "On 

C793 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

the  afternoon  of  the  Qth  (December,  1864),  the 
First  and  Third  Divisions  of  the  Sixth  Corps 
were  marched  to  the  left,  beyond  the  permanent 
lines,  and  off  in  the  direction  of  the  Weldon 
Railroad,  to  prevent  any  attack  on  the  Fifth 
and  Second  Corps,  now  returning  from  their 
expedition.  After  going  for  about  six  miles  we 
halted  for  the  night,  in  a  piece  of  woods.  It 
was  bitter  cold  when  we  left  camp,  but  soon  be 
gan  to  moderate,  then  to  rain,  then  to  sleet;  so 
that  by  the  time  we  halted,  everything  was  cov 
ered  with  ice,  with  snow  two  inches  deep  on  the 
ground,  and  still  sifting  down  through  the 
pines.  It  was  the  work  of  an  hour  to  get  fires 
going, — but  at  last  they  began  to  take  hold,  and 
fuel  was  piled  on  as  though  it  did  not  cost  any 
thing.  Clouds  of  steam  rolled  out  of  the  soaked 
garments  of  the  men,  as  they  stood  huddled 
around  the  roaring,  cracking  piles, — and  the 
black  night  and  ghostly  woods  were  lighted  up 
in  a  style  most  wonderful.  The  storm  con 
tinued  all  night,  and  many  a  man  waked  up 
next  morning  to  find  his  legs  firmly  packed  in 


A  SKETCH 

new  fallen  snow.  At  daylight  orders  came  to 
pack  up  and  be  ready  to  move  at  once;  which 
was  now  a  difficult  order  to  execute,  on  account 
of  many  things,  especially  the  shelter  tents ; — 
for  they  were  as  rigid  as  sheet-iron  and  yet  had 
to  be  rolled  up  and  strapped  on  the  knapsacks. 
Nevertheless  it  was  not  long  before  the  regi 
ment  was  in  motion;  and  after  plodding  off  for 
a  mile  to  the  left,  a  line  of  battle  was  formed, 
vedettes  sent  out,  trees  felled  and  breastworks 
built,  and  at  dinner-time  the  men  were  allowed 
to  build  fires  and  cook  breakfast.  Then,  after 
standing  until  almost  night  in  the  snow,  which 
had  now  turned  to  sleet,  the  column  was  headed 
homeward.  Upon  arriving,  it  was  discovered 
that  some  of  the  Jersey  Brigade  had  taken  pos 
session  of  our  log  snuggeries,  and  that  their 
officers  had  established  their  heels  upon  the 
mantels  in  our  officers'  quarters,  and  were  smok 
ing  the  pipes  of  comfort  and  complacency,  as 
though  they  had  not  a  trouble  in  the  world,  and 
never  expected  to  have.  But  they  soon  found 
that  possession  is  not  nine  points  of  military 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

law,  by  any  means.  An  order  from  Division 
Headquarters  soon  sent  them  profanely  pack 
ing, — and  the  Second  Heavies  occupied." 

Though  weeks  were  spent  in  such  compara 
tive  comfort  and  immunity  as  the  present  situ 
ation  afforded,  the  men  felt  as  if  they  were  rest 
ing  over  a  volcano  which  might  break  into  fierce 
activity  at  any  moment;  and  as  the  winter 
passed  signs  of  the  renewal  of  the  struggle  mul 
tiplied  on  all  sides. 

On  February  ^th  (1865) ,  part  of  the  Second 
Connecticut  was  ordered  to  move  out  to  support 
and  protect  the  flank  of  the  Fifth  Corps,  which 
was  engaged  near  Hatcher's  Run,  and  accord 
ingly  left  the  comforts  of  the  camp  and  bivou 
acked  for  the  night  a  few  miles  away.  The  history 
of  the  regiment  says :  "It  was  bitter  cold  sleeping 
that  night — so  cold  that  half  the  men  stood  or 
sat  around  fires  all  night.  In  the  morning  the 
movement  was  continued.  A  little  before  sun 
down  we  crossed  Hatcher's  Run  and  moved  by 
the  flank  directly  into  a  piece  of  woods,  the 
Second  Brigade  under  Hubbard  leading  the 

C82] 


A  SKETCH 

division  and  the  Second  Connecticut  under 
Skinner  leading  the  brigade.  Wounded  men 
were  being  brought  to  the  rear  and  the  noise 
just  ahead  told  of  mischief  there.  Colonel 
Hubbard  filed  to  the  left  at  the  head  of  the  col 
umn  along  a  slight  ridge  and  about  half  the 
regiment  had  filed  when  troops  of  the  Fifth 
Corps  came  running  through  to  the  rear  and  at 
the  same  moment  General  Wheaton  rode  up 
with  'oblique  to  the  left,  oblique  to  the  left/  and 
making  energetic  gestures  toward  the  rise  of 
ground.  The  ridge  was  quickly  gained  and  fire 
opened  just  in  time  to  head  off  a  counter  fire 
and  charge  that  was  already  in  progress,  but  be 
tween  the  'file  left'  and  the  'left  oblique'  and 
the  breaking  of  our  ranks  by  troops  retreating 
from  in  front,  and  the  vines  and  underbrush 
(which  were  so  thick  that  they  unhorsed  some 
of  the  staff  officers)  there  was  a  good  deal  of  con 
fusion,  and  the  line  soon  fell  back  about  ten 
rods,  where  it  was  reformed  and  a  vigorous  fire 
poured — somewhat  at  random — a  little  to  the 
left  of  our  first  position.  The  attempt  of  the 

£83:1 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

enemy  to  get  in  on  the  left  of  the  Fifth  Corps 
was  frustrated.  Our  casualties  were  six 
wounded  (some  of  them  probably  by  our  own 
men)  and  one  missing.  The  position  was  occu 
pied  that  night,  and  the  next  day  until  about 
sundown,  when  the  brigade  shifted  some  dis 
tance  to  the  right  and  again  advanced  under  an 
artillery  fire  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the 
rebel  batteries  and  built  breastworks.  The 
rebel  picket  shots  whistled  overhead  all  the  time 
the  breastworks  were  building,  but  mostly  too 
high  to  hurt  anything  but  the  trees.  At  mid 
night  the  division  moved  back  to  quarters,  ar 
riving  at  sunrise.  Having  taken  a  ration  of 
whiskey  which  was  ordered  by  Grant  or  some 
body  else  in  consideration  of  three  nights  and 
two  days  on  the  bare  ground  in  February,  to 
gether  with  some  fighting  and  a  good  deal  of 
hard  marching  and  hard  work,  the  men  lay 
down  to  sleep  as  the  sun  rose  up,  and  did  not 
rise  up  until  the  sun  went  down." 


[84] 


Colonel  Hubbard 


HE  routine  of  picket  duty,  inspec 
tion,  alarms,  and  orders  to  be  in 
readiness  which  came  not  infre 
quently,  continued  for  another 
succession  of  weeks,  varied  now 
by  the  constant  arrival  of  deserters  from  the 
enemy,  who  were  coming  into  the  Union  lines 
singly  and  in  large  parties  almost  daily,  and  re 
vealing  the  desperate  condition  on  the  other 
side.  Preparations  went  on  for  what  all  felt 
was  to  be  the  final  campaign;  and  this  opened 
for  the  Second  Connecticut  on  March  2£th, 
when  the  famous  assault  on  Fort  Stedman  was 
made  by  the  enemy,  Lee's  last  attempt  at  offen 
sive  operations. 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

This  position,  which  was  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  city  of  Petersburg,  was  gallantly  attacked 
and  captured  in  the  early  morning;  troops  were 
at  once  called  from  all  parts  of  the  Union  line 
and  hurried  to  the  point  of  action,  but  the  fort 
was  retaken  before  the  Second  Connecticut 
reached  the  scene,  and  the  regiment  was  then 
moved  to  the  southwest  of  the  city  before  Fort 
Fisher,  a  general  assault  of  the  whole  extensive 
line  having  been  ordered  by  Grant  to  develop 
the  weakness  that  Lee  must  have  been  obliged 
to  make  somewhere  to  carry  out  his  plan  against 
Fort  Stedman.  The  attack  succeeded  in  gain 
ing  and  holding  a  large  share  of  the  Confederate 
picket  line,  a  matter  of  great  importance. 

The  Second  Connecticut  advanced  to  the 
charge  late  in  the  afternoon  "as  steadily  as 
though  on  a  battalion  drill,"  the  regimental  his 
tory  relates.  It  captured  a  line  of  rifle  pits  and 
kept  on  "under  a  combined  artillery  and  musket 
fire.  The  air  was  blue  with  the  little  cast  iron 
balls  from  spherical-case  shot  which  shaved  the 
ground  and  exploded  among  the  stumps  just  in 


A  SKETCH 

rear  of  the  line  at  intervals  of  only  a  few  sec 
onds.  Twenty  of  the  Second  Connecticut  were 
wounded — seven  of  them  mortally — in  reach 
ing,  occupying,  and  abandoning  this  position, 
which,  proving  entirely  untenable,  was  held 
only  a  few  minutes.  The  line  faced  about  and 
moved  back  under  the  same  mixed  fire  of 
solid  shot,  spherical  case,  and  musketry,  and 
halted  not  far  in  front  of  the  spot  whence  it  had 
first  moved  forward.  Other  troops  on  the  right 
now  engaged  the  battery  and  captured  the  rest 
of  the  picket  line,  and  after  half  an  hour  the 
brigade  again  moved  forward  to  a  position  still 
further  advanced  than  the  previous  one,  where 
a  permanent  picket  line  was  established." 

The  week  following  this  eventful  day,  which 
began  with  the  capture  of  one  of  the  Union 
works,  and  ended  with  substantial  gains  along 
their  front,  saw  intense  activity  on  all  sides. 
The  abandonment  of  Petersburg  by  Lee  was 
now  plainly  imminent,  and  the  preventing  of 
his  army's  escape  was  the  paramount  object. 
The  whole  vast  field  of  operation  about  the 

[87] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

besieged  city  became  a  seething  theater  of 
complicated  movement,  and  the  Second  Con 
necticut,  under  frequent  orders  for  immediate 
advance,  was  formed  in  line  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  or  night,  and  excited  by  a  thousand 
rumors  and  orders  given  and  revoked,  but  it 
did  not  finally  leave  its  quarters  during  this 
time. 

On  April  1st,  Sheridan  won  his  notable  vic 
tory  at  Five  Forks,  and  at  midnight  the  regi 
ment  was  ordered  out  for  a  final  charge  on  the 
defences  so  long  held  against  them,  which  was 
to  be  made  early  on  the  2nd.  All  was  made 
ready,  the  lines  formed,  and  at  daylight  the 
signal  gun  set  the  army  in  motion. 

"The  advance  was  over  precisely  the  same 
ground  as  on  the  2^th  of  March,  and  the 
firing  came  from  the  same  battery  and  breast 
works,  although  not  quite  so  severe.  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Skinner  and  seven  enlisted  men  were 
wounded — none  of  them  fatally.  There  was 
but  little  firing  on  our  side,  but  with  bayonets 
fixed  the  boys  went  in, — not  in  a  very  mathe- 

C88] 


A  SKETCH 

matical  right  line,  but  strongly  and  surely, — on, 
on,  until  the  first  line  was  carried.  Then,  in 
vigorated  and  greatly  encouraged  by  success, 
they  pressed  on — the  opposing  fire  slackening 
every  minute, — on,  on,  through  the  abatis  and 
ditch,  up  the  steep  bank,  over  the  parapet  into 
the  rebel  camp  that  had  but  just  been  deserted. 
Then  and  there  the  long  tried  and  ever 
faithful  soldiers  of  the  Republic  saw  day 
light — and  such  a  shout  as  tore  the  concave 
of  that  morning  sky  it  were  worth  dying  to 
hear."  The  same  jubilant  success  was  attend 
ing  the  whole  army,  though  not  without 
sharp  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  in 
places. 

Throughout  the  day  advances  were  made  and 
the  works  so  long  besieged  were  occupied  all 
over  the  vast  field,  and  at  night  the  men  "lay 
down  in  muddy  trenches,  among  the  dying  and 
the  dead,  under  a  most  murderous  fire  of  sharp 
shooters.  There  had  been  charges  and  counter 
charges, — but  our  troops  held  all  they  had 
gained.  At  length  the  hot  day  gave  place  to 

[89] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

chilly  night,  and  the  extreme  change  brought 
much  suffering.  The  men  had  flung  away  what 
ever  was  fling-away-able  during  the  charge  of 
the  morning  and  the  subsequent  hot  march — as 
men  always  will,  under  like  circumstances — 
and  now  they  found  themselves  blanketless, 
stockingless,  overcoatless, — in  cold  and  damp 
trenches,  and  compelled  by  the  steady  firing  to 
lie  still,  or  adopt  a  horizontal,  crawling  mode  of 
locomotion,  which  did  not  admit  of  speed 
enough  to  quicken  the  circulation  of  the  blood. 
Some  took  clothing  from  the  dead  and  wrapped 
themselves  in  it;  others,  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  procure  spades,  dug  gopher  holes,  and 
burrowed.  At  daylight  the  Sixty-fifth  New 
York  clambered  over  the  huge  earthwork,  took 
possession  of  Fort  Hell,  opened  a  picket  fire  and 
fired  one  of  the  guns  in  the  fort,  eliciting  no 
reply.  Just  then  a  huge  fire  in  the  direction  of 
the  city,  followed  by  several  explosions,  con 
vinced  our  side  that  Lee's  army  had  indeed  left. 
The  regiment  was  hastily  got  together, — ninety 
muskets  being  all  that  could  be  produced, — and 

[90] 


A  SKETCH 

sent  out  on  picket.  The  picket  line  advanced 
and  meeting  with  no  resistance  pushed  on  into 
the  city.  What  regiment  was  first  to  enter  the 
city  is  and  probably  ever  will  be  a  disputed 
question.  The  Second  Connecticut  claims  to 
have  been  in  first,  but  Colonel  Hubbard  had  or 
dered  the  colors  to  remain  behind  when  the  regi 
ment  went  out  on  the  skirmish  line,  consequently 
the  stars  and  stripes  that  first  floated  over  cap 
tured  Petersburg  belonged  to  some  other  regi 
ment.  Colonel  Hubbard  was,  however,  made 
Provost-Marshal  of  the  city,  and  for  a  brief 
while  dispensed  government  and  law  in  that 
capacity." 

Petersburg,  however,  now  that  it  was  aban 
doned  by  the  enemy,  had  lost  the  importance  it 
had  so  long  possessed,  and  all  energies  were 
given  to  preventing  the  escape  of  its  late  de 
fenders.  Before  the  end  of  the  day  (April  3d) 
the  regiment,  with  the  rest  of  the  Sixth  Corps, 
had  turned  westward  and  joined  the  pursuit. 
The  chase  was  stern  and  the  marches  rapid,  but 
far  less  wearing  to  these  victorious  veterans, 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

filled  with  the  consciousness  of  success,  than 
those  that  had  initiated  their  campaigning  less 
than  a  year  before.  On  April  6th  the  regiment, 
after  an  all  day  march,  came  up  with  the  enemy 
in  position  at  Sailor's  Creek,  and  went  into  the 
last  engagement  of  its  career.  It  was  a  charge 
under  a  hot  fire,  sharp  and  decisive,  which 
quickly  changed  to  a  pursuit  of  the  fleeing 
enemy,  kept  up  until  the  bivouack  at  ten 
o'clock.  The  Second  Connecticut  captured  the 
headquarters  train  of  General  Mahone,  a  battle 
flag,  and  many  prisoners,  and  ended  the  tale  of 
its  losses  with  three  men  killed  and  six 
wounded. 

The  chase  was  taken  up  next  morning  (April 
yth) ,  and  the  regiment  had  reached  a  point  close 
to  Appomattox  Court  House,  when  on  April  gth 
Lee  met  Grant  and  surrendered  what  remained 
of  his  army,  at  that  historic  place. 

To  imagine  all  that  this  meant  to  the  men  in 
arms  is  far  easier  than  to  attempt  its  descrip 
tion.  They  saw  at  last  the  end  arriving  of  all 

[92] 


A  SKETCH 

the  privation  and  suffering  they  had  volun 
teered  to  undergo ;  they  saw  the  triumph  of  the 
Union  they  had  risen  to  defend  to  the  uttermost 
extremity  a  proven  fact.  The  whole  continent 
vibrated  with  the  deepest  feeling  at  the  news  of 
it,  but  they,  better  than  any  others,  knew  in  the 
fullest  degree  its  immense  significance. 


1931 


IMMEDIATELY  after  the  surrender 
of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
the  Sixth  Corps  was  moved  to 
Burkesville,  some  distance  from 
Appomattox  in  the  direction  of 
Richmond,  and  there  it  remained  for  about 
ten  days  awaiting  events.  On  April  22nd 
it  was  ordered  southward  to  Danville,  with 
a  view  to  joining  Sherman's  army  then 
confronting  Johnston  in  North  Carolina, 
a  movement  which  again  necessitated  some 
fatiguing  marches,  the  one  hundred  and  five 
miles  being  covered  in  less  than  five  days. 
News  was  received,  however,  that  Johnston  had 
followed  the  example  of  Lee  and  surrendered, 


A  SKETCH 

and  the  corps  thereupon  faced  about  once  more. 
On  its  leisurely  progress  to  the  north  it  was 
joined  by  crowds  of  the  newly  freed  negroes, 
who  attached  themselves  to  every  regiment  in 
droves,  and  the  lately  hostile  inhabitants  came 
also  at  every  stopping  place,  "with  baskets  and 
two-wheeled  carts"  for  supplies  to  relieve  their 
dire  necessities. 

Near  Richmond  the  regiment  remained  sev 
eral  days,  and  the  men  were  allowed  passes  to 
visit  the  late  Confederate  capital,  so  long  the 
goal  of  their  strenuous  efforts.  "The  burnt  dis 
trict  was  still  smoking  with  the  remains  of  the 
great  fire  of  April  2nd,  and  the  city  was  full  of 
officers  and  soldiers  of  the  ex-Confederate  army. 
The  blue  and  the  gray  mingled  on  the  streets  and 
public  squares,  and  were  seen  side  by  side  in  the 
Sabbath  congregations.  The  war  was  over." 

The  consciousness  of  this  last  great  fact  was 
now  becoming  insistent  in  the  minds  of  these 
citizen  soldiers.  The  great  purpose  for  which 
they  had  offered  themselves  was  carried  out,  and 
their  eagerness  to  have  done  with  all  the  circum- 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

stances  of  military  life  was  increasingly  strong, 
and  grew  so  intense  as  to  render  the  final  weeks 
of  their  term  of  service  extremely  trying. 

The  tremendous  task  of  disbanding  the  armies 
of  the  Union  was  occupying  the  entire  energies 
of  the  War  Department,  but  to  the  men  it 
seemed  as  if  their  longed  for  turn  would  never 
come.  Back  in  the  well-known  fortifications 
around  Washington  they  waited,  taking  part  in 
the  Grand  Review  on  June  8th,  in  all  the  misery 
of  full  dress,  and  in  a  temper  that  would  have 
carried  them  against  the  thousands  of  acclaim 
ing  spectators  with  savage  joy,  had  it  been  a 
host  of  enemies  in  arms. 

But  their  turn  came  at  last,  and  on  July  yth, 
one  hundred  and  eighty-three  men,  all  that  were 
left  of  the  original  enlisted  men  of  the  "old 
Nineteenth,"  were  mustered  out;  two  days  later 
they  departed  for  New  Haven  and  were  wel 
comed  there,  like  all  the  returning  troops,  with 
patriotic  rejoicing. 

The  remainder  of  the  regiment,  some  four 
hundred  in  number,  was  mustered  out  in  its 

[96] 


A  SKETCH 

turn  on  August  i8th,  reached  New  Haven  on 
the  2Oth,  and  ' 'passed  up  Chapel  Street  amid 
welcoming  crowds  of  people,  the  clangor  of 
bells,  and  a  shower  of  rockets  and  red  lights  that 
made  the  field-and-staff  horses  prance  with  the 
belief  that  battle  had  come  again.  After  partak 
ing  of  a  bounteous  entertainment  prepared  in 
the  basement  of  the  State  House,  the  regiment 
proceeded  to  Grapevine  Point,  where,  on  the  ^th 
of  September,  they  received  their  pay  and  dis 
charge,  and  the  Second  Connecticut  Heavy  Artil 
lery  vanished  from  sight  and  passedintoHistory ." 

IN  Litchfield  County  the  return  of  the  various 
contingents  to  their  homes  was  made  the  occa 
sion  of  great  rejoicing.  Chief  among  these  cele 
brations  was  a  grand  reception  at  the  county 
seat  on  August  1st,  when  the  first  detachment 
to  be  discharged  had  arrived;  they  were  feted 
with  dinner  and  speeches,  illuminations  and  a 
triumphal  arch.  There  were  also  other  organ 
ized  demonstrations  in  other  towns,  and  every 
where  the  strongest  manifestations  of  pride  in 

[97  3 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

these  warrior  sons  of  the  county,  and  joy  at  their 
return. 

But  all  who  went  had  not  returned.  The  ter 
rible  significance  of  the  cold  and  formal  col 
umns  and  tables  of  the  regiment's  casualties  was 
felt  in  every  town,  and  to  their  tale  was  added 
in  succeeding  years  a  long  list  of  the  many  who 
had  indeed  come  back,  but  broken  with  wounds 
and  disease,  and  just  as  truly  devoted  to  death 
through  their  service  as  those  who  fell  upon  the 
field  of  battle. 

What  the  Second  Connecticut  suffered  is 
shown,  so  far  as  official  statistics  go,  in  the 
tables  published  by  the  Adjutant-General  of 
the  state,  as  follows : 

Killed 147 

Missing  in  action,  probably  killed    ...      1 1 

Fatally  wounded 95 

Wounded 427 

Captured 72 

Died  in  prison 21 

Died  of  disease  or  accident 154 

Discharged  for  disability 285 

Unaccounted  for  at  muster  out  .     35 

C983 


DEFENCES 
or 

WASHiNGTONj 


Monument  at  Arlington 


A  SKETCH 

The  officers  of  the  regiment  as  mustered  out 
were:  Colonel,  James  Hubbard,  Salisbury; 
lieutenant-colonel,  Jeffrey  Skinner,  Winches 
ter;  majors,  Edward  W.  Jones,  New  Hartford; 
Augustus  H.  Fenn,  Plymouth;  Chester  D. 
Cleveland,  Barkhamsted;  adjutant,  Theodore 
F.  Vaill,  Litchfield;  quartermaster,  Edward  C. 
Huxley,  Goshen ;  surgeon,  Henry  Plumb,  New 
Milford;  assistant  surgeons,  Robert  G.  Haz- 
zard,  New  Haven;  Judson  B.  Andrews,  New 
Haven;  chaplain,  Winthrop  H.  Phelps,  Bark 
hamsted. 


HE  preceding  pages  have  outlined 
the  career  of  the  Second  Connec 
ticut  Heavy  Artillery,  and  have 
narrated  some  of  the  more  mem 
orable  events  of  its  history. 
Enough  has  been  told  of  what  it  did  to  furnish 
grounds  for  deducing  what  it  was;  but  to  deal 
with  the  regiment  on  the  personal  side  is  hardly 
possible  within  the  limits  of  such  a  sketch  as 
this,  though  it  is  a  matter  that  cannot  be  entirely 
passed  by.  It  need  not  be  said  that  there  is 
abundant  human  interest  attaching  as  a  matter 
of  course  to  such  men  as  were  in  the  aggregate 
the  subjects  of  so  fine  a  record. 

Any  body  of  men — a  college  class,  a  legisla- 
[100  ] 


A  SKETCH 

ture,  a  regiment — is  in  character  what  its  com 
ponent  members  make  it;  in  this  case  there  was 
the  material,  which,  furnished  with  worthy 
leadership — and  it  unquestionably  had  that — 
made  up  the  organization  whose  not  uneventful 
existence  has  been  described.  That  they  were 
better  men,  or  worse,  braver  men,  or  more  patri 
otic,  than  their  descendants  and  successors 
would  prove  under  similar  conditions,  or  than 
the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  contempo 
raries  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  same  ser 
vice,  is  not  to  be  believed;  yet  to  have  passed 
through  such  experiences  as  have  been  re 
counted,  which  became  for  them  for  a  time  the 
commonplaces  of  every-day  life,  is  enough  to 
place  them  apart  from  ordinary  men  in  the  eyes 
of  our  peace  knowing  generation.  In  fact,  to 
have  passed  the  tests  of  so  fierce  a  course  of  edu 
cation  gives  them  a  title  to  a  place  thus  apart. 
The  university  man  of  to-day,  as  the  burden 
of  the  baccalaureate  sermons  so  frequently  tes 
tifies,  is  consigned  to  a  special  place  of  responsi 
bility  in  life  because  of  his  training;  these  men 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

surely  earned  one  of  special  honor  by  reason  of 
theirs,  which  was,  too,  not  like  the  other,  prepa 
ration  alone,  but  also  fulfilment.  The  realiza 
tion  of  how  typical  it  all  was  of  that  generation 
and  that  time,  brings  the  clearest  understanding 
of  the  real  scope  of  the  Civil  War. 

To  the  members  of  the  Litchfield  County  Uni 
versity  Club  it  is  perhaps  a  point  of  interest  to 
take  brief  notice  of  those  names  on  the  regi 
mental  rolls  which  would  probably  have  been 
found  upon  its  list  of  members  had  the  organi 
zation  been  in  existence  in  that  earlier  time.  A 
number  of  the  officers  and  men  were  college 
graduates  when  they  enlisted,  and  others  gained 
degrees  after  the  war  ended ;  the  list  which  fol 
lows  is,  however,  necessarily  incomplete;  in 
fact,  an  absolutely  correct  list  is  no  doubt  hope 
lessly  impossible. 

Major  James  Q.  Rice,  who  was  killed  at  Win 
chester,  was  a  member  of  the  class  of  1850  at 
Wesleyan,  and  received  from  that  institution 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1855.  At  the 

C102] 


A  SKETCH 

time  of  the  regiment's  formation  he  was  con 
ducting  an  academy  in  Goshen,  and  was  en 
listed  as  captain  of  a  company  which  he  had 
been  active  in  recruiting. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Nathaniel  Smith  of 
Woodbury  entered  the  Yale  Law  School  in  the 
class  of  1853,  but  did  not  graduate.  Ill  health 
forced  him  to  relinquish  his  commission  early 
in  1864,  and  until  his  death  in  1877  he  was  a 
leading  citizen  of  the  county. 

Judge  Augustus  H.  Fenn,  Major  and  Brevet- 
Colonel,  came  back  from  the  war,  having  lost 
an  arm  at  Cedar  Creek,  to  take  a  course  in  the 
Law  School  at  Harvard,  and  Yale  made  him  a 
Master  of  Arts  in  1889.  His  prominence  for 
many  years  in  public  life  and  as  judge  in  the 
highest  courts  in  the  state  is  well  known.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  in  1897,  he  was  a  lecturer 
in  the  Yale  Law  School,  and  member  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Errors. 

Rev.  James  Deane,  Captain  and  Brevet- 
Major,  was  a  graduate  of  Williams  in  the  class 
of  1857.  He  was  pastor  of  the  Congregational 

[103;] 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

church  at  East  Canaan  when  the  regiment  was 
organized,  and  was  one  of  its  recruiting  officers. 

Adjutant  Theodore  F.  Vaill,  the  historian  of 
the  regiment,  was  a  student  before  the  war  at 
Union  College,  but  did  not  graduate. 

Captain  George  S.  Williams,  of  New  Mil- 
ford,  was  a  member  of  the  class  of  1852  at  Yale 
for  a  time,  and  received  a  degree  from  Trinity 
in  1855. 

Surgeon  Henry  Plumb,  and  Assistant-Sur 
geons  Robert  G.  Hazzard  and  John  W.  Lawton 
were  all  graduates  of  the  Yale  Medical  School, 
in  the  classes  of  1861,  1862,  and  1859.  Assist 
ant-Surgeon  Judson  B.  Andrews  graduated  at 
Yale  in  1855.  He  was  captain  in  a  New  York 
regiment  in  the  early  part  of  the  war,  and  be 
came  afterward  superintendent  of  the  Buffalo 
State  Hospital,  and  a  recognized  authority  on 
insanity  before  his  death  in  1894. 

Chaplain  Jonathan  A.  Wainwright  gradu 
ated  at  the  University  of  Vermont  in  1846,  and 
after  the  war  was  for  some  years  rector  of  St. 
John's  Church  in  Salisbury.  He  was  later  con- 


A  SKETCH 

nected  with  a  church  college  in  Missouri,  where 
he  died  in  1898. 

Captain  William  H.  Lewis,  Jr.,  studied  after 
the  war  at  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School,  and 
has  been  for  many  years  rector  of  St.  John's 
Church  in  Bridgeport. 

Lieutenant  and  Brevet-Captain  Lewis  W. 
Munger,  graduating  at  Brown  in  1869  and  later 
from  the  Crozier  Theological  Seminary,  entered 
the  ministry  of  the  Baptist  church. 

Corporal  Francis  J.  Young  entered  the  Yale 
Medical  School  before  the  war,  and  returned 
after  its  close  to  take  his  degree  in  1866. 

Hospital  Steward  James  J.  Averill  also  grad 
uated  at  the  Yale  Medical  School  after  the  war. 

Sergeant  Theodore  C.  Glazier  was  a  graduate 
of  Trinity  in  the  class  of  1860,  and  was  a  tutor 
there  when  he  enlisted.  He  was  later  made 
colonel  of  a  colored  regiment,  and  served  with 
credit  in  that  capacity. 

Corporal  Edward  C.  Hopson,  a  graduate  of 
Trinity  in  1864,  was  killed  at  Cedar  Creek. 

Sergeant  Garwood  R.  Merwin,  who  had  been 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

a  member  of  the  class  of  1864  at  Yale,  died  at 
Alexandria  in  1863. 

Sergeant  Romulus  C.  Loveridge,  who  had 
been  entered  in  the  class  of  1865  at  Yale,  re 
ceived  a  commission  in  a  colored  regiment. 

Colonel  Mackenzie  graduated  at  West  Point 
in  1862,  but  he  was  never  a  resident  of  the 
county,  or  of  Connecticut,  and  his  only  connec 
tion  with  either  was  through  his  commission 
from  Governor  Buckingham. 

There  are  not  a  few  other  names  upon  the 
rolls  of  the  regiment  which  upon  more  thorough 
investigation  than  has  been  possible  in  the 
present  case  would  certainly  be  added  to  the 
list.  A  complete  history  of  the  organization 
would  also  give  a  large  place  to  the  association 
of  its  veterans  formed  shortly  after  the  war, 
whose  frequent  gatherings  have  more  than  a 
superficial  likeness  to  the  reunions  of  college 
classes.  Memorable  among  these  meetings  was 
the  one  held  on  October  21,  1896,  the  occasion 
being  the  dedication  of  the  regiment's  monu 
ment  in  the  National  Cemetery  at  Arlington, 


A  SKETCH 

with  a  pilgrimage  also  to  the  scenes  of  its  battles 
and  marches  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  near  by. 

As  a  whole,  the  regiment  was  a  body  thor 
oughly  representative  not  only  of  the  army  of 
which  it  was  a  fraction,  an  army  as  has  been 
often  said  unlike  any  other  the  world  has 
known,  but  also  of  the  population  from  which 
it  was  drawn.  It  was  made  up  of  men  of  almost 
all  conditions  of  life  and  of  widely  different 
ages,  though  naturally  with  young  men  in  a 
large  majority;  of  mechanics  from  the  Housa- 
tonic  and  Naugatuck  valleys,  and  farmers'  boys 
from  the  hills ;  of  men  of  education  and  men  of 
none.  Though  the  large  addition  to  its  num 
bers  which  the  increase  in  size  necessitated  made 
it  perhaps  somewhat  less  homogeneous  than  at 
first,  it  did  not  greatly  alter  its  essential  charac 
teristics. 

The  records  kept  by  the  association  referred 
to,  furnish  suggestive  revelations  as  to  the 
various  elements  that  composed  it.  The  names 
of  men  of  every  sort  and  kind  are  found  upon 
the  rolls.  There  were  veterans  of  the  Mexican 


THE  COUNTY  REGIMENT 

War;  there  were  refugees  from  the  revolution 
ary  uprisings  in  Europe  of  1848;  there  were 
some  who  had  served  under  compulsion  in  the 
armies  of  the  South;  there  were  men  whose  ob 
viously  fictitious  names  concealed  stories  which 
could  be  guessed  to  be  extraordinary;  there  were 
names  which  have  been  for  years  among  the  best 
known  and  most  honored  in  this  state ;  and  there 
were  those  of  outcasts  and  wrecks. 

A  large  part  of  these  men  came  back  after 
their  service  ended  to  resume  the  peaceful  life 
of  citizenship,  and  every  town  among  us  has 
known  some  of  them  ever  since  among  its  lead 
ing  figures,  while  some  in  quarters  far  distant 
have  also  attained  to  honors  and  responsi 
bilities,  as  the  records  show.  Connecticut  has 
known  for  many  years  no  small  number  of  them 
as  foremost  in  all  lines  of  activity,  and  knows 
to-day,  in  official  station  and  in  private  life, 
men  of  many  honors,  who  count  not  least  among 
these  the  fact  that  they  were  enrolled  among 
the  soldiers  of  the  Second  Connecticut  Heavy 
Artillery. 


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